Through the Years, Season 5: Battle Island
by Evanibble
Summary: Immediately following his defeat in the Lily of the Valley Conference, 20-year old Niko sets off for the Battle Frontier on an island to the northeast of Sinnoh. There, he plans to compete in the five battle facilities with Lauren, and travel the island with his friends Brittany and JJ. This is a story of their adventures around the island. Enjoy!
1. The Fight Area!

**Episode 1: The Fight Area!**

"Looks like we're almost there, Niko." Lauren said, holding her boyfriend's arm as a port came into view. "The Fight Area."

"Excited?" Niko asked, not looking down at her. Lauren nodded. Niko noticed that, on their week-long journey back to Snowpoint City, which was the only port available to take them to Battle Island, Lauren had seemed happier. As someone who has generally been poor at reading others, Niko has put more effort into this than he usually does with interpreting emotions and other actions.

He wanted to believe that her happiness was derived from the conclusion of the Sinnoh League which, from Niko's perspective, did not go very well. At one point, it nearly created a rift between him and his friends, due to his anger getting the best of him. His outbursts inadvertently hurt Lauren as well, and for the following couple of days she was largely silent around him. After giving her time, the two talked over his feelings—and hers—and found themselves in a better place. At least, as far as their relationship was concerned.

Niko, however, still felt a lingering pain from his battle with Hunter. He found it hard to believe that anyone—anyone at all—would go as far as to intentionally wound a pokémon like toxicroak did to rampardos. Niko still felt angry about it all, but did his best to repress his anger, both for the sake of his friends, family, and pokémon, but also for himself. He knew that if he let it fester, it could damage his life as he knew it.

Because of the injury rampardos incurred—one that, if only an inch or so in a different direction, could have been fatal—Niko chose not to bring the headbutt pokémon to Battle Island with him. He took his remaining four Sinnoh pokémon, and was considering rotating his other reserves in and out of Pallet Town. After seeing how much they'd improved during the Sinnoh League, Niko wanted to give them more chances to show their abilities and help him win whatever came his way.

Lauren was also participating in this new challenge—one that Scott called the "Battle Frontier." Neither of them knew specifically what it was, but from what JJ and Brittany surmised, it was akin to gym challenges, but with several different styles of battling. On the train from Celestic Town to Snowpoint City, they looked up the Battle Frontier in the Kanto region—something none of them even knew existed—and saw the different kinds of "facilities" that they had built up around the region. One of them was a type of battle where the challenger would use rental pokémon, and another was a _flying pyramid_ that flew over the region periodically. After seeing this, Niko and Lauren were excited to try this new challenge for themselves, both hoping to win it all.

As they pulled into the port—and as Niko felt incredibly nauseous—JJ and Brittany joined the other two on the deck, marveling at the area around them. The Fight Area was breathtakingly beautiful—palm trees littered the edges of the town and the mountains around the city. The area itself was just like any ordinary port city that the group's seen before. The only exception was the massive, several-dozen story tower sitting in the center of the Fight Area.

"So…that's probably where we go first…" Lauren said, showing Niko the tower.

"Gee, what makes you think that?" Niko said with a wheeze and a laugh. He really was feeling sick now.

Lauren simply stuck her tongue out at him playfully before realizing that they needed to leave the boat. Unlike most of their other travels, their journey to the Fight Area was with other passengers as well. The trip only took a day or so, and the group got to know some of the other people on the boat. On one occasion, they got to meet an old couple who were going to visit their granddaughter at the Fight Area, and a young couple going to the Resort Area for their honeymoon. They also met the occasional trainer, but for the most part the passengers were tourists. And, given the environment of the Fight Area—and supposedly the Resort Area—it wasn't difficult to see why.

As soon as they got off the boat, Niko doubled over and breathed heavily while the other three decided what to do first. Once Niko was starting to feel a little better, they all elected to visit the local Pokémon Center, rest up a bit, and then go find Scott, who had given them directions before they left Lily of the Valley Island.

Niko was the first to lay down on a bed, quickly falling asleep. Meanwhile Lauren, Brittany, and JJ went to grab some food and walk around the city for a bit. When Niko woke up, he looked around, noticed his friends were gone, but continued laying there.

During his brief nap, he had a dream about his battle with Hunter. Those weren't uncommon since the Lily of the Valley Conference, where he lost 2-6 to Hunter and nearly lost one of his pokémon in the process. In his dreams, he would either relive the moment—which, in a dream seemed far more frightening to him—or would see another one of his pokémon get nearly killed in a battle. Every time, he imagined Hunter laughing hysterically at him, calling him names or colorful expletives. And each time he would wake up in a cold sweat, which would sometimes also wake a concerned Lauren up.

Niko crawled off the bed and stood up in a daze, as he sometimes did, before grabbing four of his pokéballs and lumbering out of the room for the practice battlefield.

"Hey, everyone. Come on out!" He said, summoning torterra, luxray, prinplup, and staraptor. "So... we're finally here at the Fight Area." He said, rubbing his eyes. "Sorry, just woke up." He said apologetically, earning a low chuckle from torterra and staraptor. "Anyways!" He perked up, looking at the four standing before him. "I don't know exactly what we'll be doing here, but we will be battling, and I'll need to rely on you guys to keep battling as hard as you can. We don't know yet how many of these 'battle facilities' there are on this island, or even what kind of battling they'll be. In some cases, I might not even get to battle with you all." He watched as they all looked at him with despair. "I know, there are places that require using rental pokémon, which will definitely be odd.

"Anyways, I just wanted to give you four a heads up. We'll still be travelling with Lauren, Brittany, and JJ, and all their pokémon, so it won't be too different. Except for one thing. I might try rotating you four out with my other pokémon—the ones you met at Lily of the Valley Island. I want to give them an opportunity to participate, too, since some of them did really well in the conference. So, I might send some of you off to Pallet Town. Will that be okay with you four?" When he saw them all nod in affirmation, he smiled and clapped his hands together. "Great! You'll love it there! My parents will take good care of you, and Jake might even be there to practice battling with you all. And, as you know, my other pokémon are there, too, and they'll love to have you along."

Niko then trained for a little bit with them. It felt good to be working alongside his pokémon again. He didn't get much chance to interact with them during his trip to the Fight Area, with the only exception being when he fed them. He watched as torterra and luxray were practicing their bite; prinplup was trying to learn hydro pump after seeing feraligatr use it; and staraptor was practicing his aerial ace.

It was actually the predator pokémon, of all of them, that most caught Niko's attention during this short session. Every time staraptor used aerial ace, Niko noticed small blue spark emitting from the white tendrils that appeared during the attack. He recalled noticing it during the Lily of the Valley Conference during his battle with Lauren, but seemed to forget about it until that moment in the Fight Area. Was staraptor learning a new move? Was it an upgrade from aerial ace? What was happening?

* * *

While Niko was sleeping or training at the Pokémon Center, the other three went off into the city to tour the area, as they had no idea how long they'd be there, or really anything about the island. It seemed to irk Lauren the most, of all people.

"I wish we knew more about this whole Battle Frontier business." She finally complained after they left the Pokémon Center. "Scott didn't really give us much, other than the offer and where to meet him, and when."

"I'm sure once Niko wakes up and we go visit Scott at that tower that everything will click. This is new for all of us, and I think it's exciting, actually." The brunette said, looking up at the cloudless sky above them. "It almost feels like vacation to me. No worrying about contests, no stress over mastering a performance. It feels good."

JJ nodded in agreement. "Hey guys, can we see if there's a Poketch manufacturer here? I want to see if I can upgrade this watch to have a map of Battle Island." The girls give him permission, and JJ then started to ask around for directions. Soon enough, they found themselves at a Poketch store, only to find it closed for the day. "You're kidding me…"

"Well, we could just go find a paper map. There has to be one _somewhere_." Brittany suggested.

"Yeah, I just want to find new uses for my Poketch. Actually, I'm going to go look for a map, want to meet up at the Pokémon Center in a couple hours?"

"Sure." Lauren said, once more giving JJ permission. Soon enough, the curly blonde was off, with togetic fluttering at his side, leaving the two girls alone. They began walking aimlessly in one direction until Lauren started talking again. "So, do you think Niko is alright?"

"What do you mean?" Brittany asked. She had a feeling she knew, but she wanted to hear it from Lauren.

"About the Pokémon League…Hunter…is he going to be alright? Has something like this happened to him before?"

"Do you mean to ask if a pokémon of his was hurt like this before?" Lauren nodded. "Then yes, but only briefly." Brittany then told the story about Niko's Bulbasaur being temporarily blinded in the aftermath of his first battle with Sabrina, several years back in Kanto. Ultimately, bulbasaur was able to recover, but it definitely affected Niko. "As for Hunter, I'm sure he'll get over it. Niko gets over losses eventually. He always has." She then lowered her head, looking at the concrete ground under her. "But…Hunter is different from other rivals he's had. Hunter is a different person altogether. Niko will pull through, though!"

"Good. Thanks for reassuring me, Brittany." Lauren said with a sincere smile. Just as they turned the corner to walk back towards the Pokémon Center, a little girl ran up to them.

"Hi…are you Brittany from Vermilion City?" The girl, who couldn't have been older than 8 or 9, asked quietly.

"Yes…?" Brittany asked, thoroughly confused. "How may I help you?"

"I, uh…" The girl said, hiding behind her stuffed doll. "I think you're really great…" She said. Moments later, an older woman—presumably the child's mother—showed up. "Mommy, look! It's Brittany!"

"Oh! Brittany, hi…I'm Lisa's mother. Sorry if she seems nervous. She's a huge fan of yours. Lisa and I have watched all of your contests this past year, and now Lisa wants to be a coordinator when she gets older." Lisa nodded in confirmation.

"Oh, I…wow." Brittany said, unsure of how to feel. "Well, I-I'm sure you will be, Lisa. And you'll be a Top Coordinator one day, too! But you have to work hard for it every single day. Can you do that?"

"If you could, then so can I!" Lisa said proudly, seeming to come out of her shell, albeit blushing a little.

"C'mon Lisa, we've gotta go find your dad now. Thank you, Brittany, for inspiring my child." The mother said as she walked off with Lisa, leaving Brittany dumbfounded. For a minute, both girls were standing still.

"I guess that's what happens when you become Top Coordinator, eh?" Lauren asked, nudging Brittany a little.

"Yeah, guess so…" Brittany replied, suddenly feeling a mix of euphoria and purpose.

* * *

The group reunited back at the Pokémon Center a few hours after leaving Niko alone to nap. JJ was the first to arrive, finding Niko running around with his pokémon on the practice battlefield. For a few minutes, JJ just stood there, observing the human and four pokémon. Judging from the mix of joy and determination on their faces, one wouldn't have guessed that they had almost lost a teammate. Just as he was about to walk outside, he saw Brittany and Lauren get back.

"Find it?" Brittany asked. JJ nodded, holding up a folded map of what was presumably Battle Island. She then looked on with Lauren at their friend and his pokémon. "Wow, he seems in his element now."

"He really does…" Lauren said with an exhausted smile on her face. Minutes later, they all walked outside. "Niko!"

Niko turned his head to see Lauren holding her arms out wide. "Hey…how're you all doing?" He said, briefly hugging his girlfriend.

"Waiting for you to wake up!" Brittany said before retelling their past couple of hours. Niko and JJ seemed particularly touched by the girls' encounter with young Lisa. "Anyways, should we get going to meet Scott?"

Niko and Lauren both nodded, grabbing their bags—and pokéballs—and heading off with Brittany and JJ towards the tower in the center of the Fight Area. All in all, the trip didn't take too long, and when they got there they noticed Scott standing outside talking with what looked like a referee of sorts.

"Oh! Niko, Lauren! Ha-ha, welcome to the Battle Tower!" Scot said, opening his arms wide as well. "Tell me—how was the trip here?"

"It was…alright. At least until the end." Niko said, explaining his motion sickness. "But we're glad to be here. Can you tell us more about this Battle Frontier now?"

"Oh, course I can!" Scott said. "Come on in, I'll explain inside." He then led the group into the Battle Tower with the referee. They walked to an ordinary elevator, and once inside Scott pressed a button to take them to the 21st floor. The entire time, Niko was wondering the purpose of the referee. Were he and Lauren about to battle?

They made it to the top, which comprised of only a standard battlefield and stands. Sitting in the stands was a tall man with a white t-shirt and forest green overcoat with yellow buttons on them. His hair was blonde and messy. Upon seeing Scott and the group, he perked up and jumped out of the stands, landing on his feet on the battlefield.

"Scott! Long time no see! How's the recruiting coming along?" He then took a closer look at the four young trainers, and smiled warmly.

"That's exactly why I'm here, Palmer! Meet Niko and Lauren. They both competed in the recent Lily of the Valley Conference, which is where I recruited them. They both show promise, and their pokémon are tough as nails, judging from their battles." He turned to Niko and Lauren. "Niko, Lauren, meet Palmer. He's the Tower Tycoon, and the Frontier Brain for the Battle Tower here."

* * *

 **Author's Note: Season 5 is here! So, this season will be significantly shorter than the others previous, so in some ways think of it as an extension of Season 4. I hope you enjoy it! It'll be a little more intense in some respects on previous seasons (or, at least, I plan for it to be!) enjoy!**


	2. The Tower Tycoon!

**Episode 2: The Tower Tycoon!**

"Tower…Tycoon?" Lauren asked, puzzled. Scott nodded his head excitedly.

"Yes! You both want an explanation, and here it is. In the Sinnoh Battle Frontier, located here on Battle Island, there are five 'facilities'—the Battle Tower, Battle Hall, Battle Factory, Battle Castle, and Battle Arcade. Each facility had a Frontier Brain. They're sort of like gym leaders. When you beat them, you get a 'Frontier Print.' You have beaten the Battle Frontier when you've gotten all five of them. Make sense?"

"And what happens once you've gotten all five of them?" Niko inquired.

"Oh. I'll tell you if and when you get there." Scott replied with a wink. "Now, are you both interested?"

"Of course, we are!" Niko said, pumping his fist. "Where should we start?"

Scott shrugged. "There's no recommended place to start, unlike some Pokémon Gyms are. But, since you're here, and if Palmer is willing, you could both challenge him now." Scott then turned to Palmer, who simply nodded.

"Yes, I'll take challenges from both of you." The Tower Tycoon responded. "That is, if you're both ready."

Scott nodded. "Indeed. Palmer's one of the stronger Frontier Brains, if I do say so myself. But it's completely up to you two."

"I'll do it. Palmer, I officially challenge you to a battle!" Niko said, stepping forward. Lauren did as well, standing next to her boyfriend.

Palmer smirked. "Alright then. It will be a three-on-three battle, and in between battles I have the right to heal my pokémon. Sound good?" They both nodded. "Excellent. Niko, you shall be first." Both Niko and Palmer took opposing ends of the battlefield, the Tower Tycoon pulling out a pokéball while Niko did the same. The referee stood in the middle of the field as usual and explained the ordinary rules of battling. Then, on his command, both Palmer and Niko summoned their pokémon. "Milotic, I choose you!"

"Milotic? Alright then…torterra, I choose you!" Niko shouted, summoning the continent pokémon. "Let's start off with razor leaf!"

"Milotic, attract!" Palmer commanded. The tender pokémon responded by emitting small, pink hearts from its body, all of them floating over towards torterra. Suddenly, the large tortoise gave a shy expression, hinting that he was infatuated with milotic.

"Oh, you're kidding me…" Niko said, smacking his head. "Torterra, snap out of it!"

"Milotic, ice beam!" Palmer shouted. Milotic opened her maw and conjured a steady stream of ice that hit torterra directly in the face. It did not, evidently, stop torterra from having fake feelings for this pokémon. "Now use surf!"

"Torterra, c'mon!" Niko shouted. "Bah! Return, then." Niko said, sending torterra back into his pokéball just as the surf attack missed. "Luxray, you're up! Use charge!"

"Milotic, hypnosis!" Palmer directed. Like with Lauren's haunter, the tender pokémon emitted red rings from her eyes, all of which hit luxray directly, forcing the gleam eyes pokémon to fall to the ground, asleep. "Now, ice beam!"

Niko bit his finger in frustration. _When Scott says Palmer is the toughest, he isn't kidding. But we can do this._ "Luxray, wake up!" Niko shouted. However, he didn't need to—the ice beam was enough, shocking the electric type out of his slumber. "Use discharge!" Luxray then released all of his stored electricity, sending sparks in every direction, and hitting milotic directly. The tender pokémon slowed down considerably, as she was now stunned. "Thunderfang!"

"Milotic, ice beam." Palmer said, crossing his arms. The jet of ice flew in a direct path towards luxray, who was agile enough to move to the side and continue charging forward towards his opponent. The gleam eyes pokémon then leapt into the air before landing on milotic's body and sinking his teeth into the tender pokémon. "Hypnosis!" Palmer commanded. Milotic once more shot out the red, hypnotic rings at luxray, knocking the electric feline off of her body. Once luxray was on the ground, milotic slowly maneuvered her body to face luxray and used ice beam once more.

Like the first time, the ice beam seemed to wake luxray up. The gleam eyes pokémon didn't seem very happy with it. "Discharge!" Niko commanded, thrusting his hand upwards. Once more, luxray cried out, unleashing every bit of electricity it had acquired, hitting the paralyzed milotic. The tender pokémon then fell backwards in defeat, landing on the floor of the battlefield, spread out.

"Milotic is unable to battle, luxray wins! Tycoon Palmer will send out his second pokémon!" The referee declared.

"Milotic, return. Rhyperior, I choose you!" Palmer said, summoning a massive charcoal-colored pokémon with red armor along its torso, shoulders, and kneecaps. It had a small drill in place of a nose; holes in its palms; and a club for a tail.

" _Rhyperior, the drill pokémon. Rock and ground type. It can launch a rock held in its hand like a missile by tightening then expanding its muscles instantly_."

"Rock and ground type? Luxray, return." Niko said, pocketing the gleam eyes pokémon. "Torterra, I choose you! Razor leaf!"

"Rock wrecker!" Palmer commanded. Rhyperior then held its hands close together, and small chunks of gray stones came out of its hands to form a massive gray rock with a red aura to it. Rhyperior then launched the rock forward, breaking through the leaves and directly hitting torterra, forcing the pokémon a few inches backwards. "Now, earthquake!"

"Counter with earthquake as well!" Niko commanded. Suddenly both pokémon were shaking the ground underneath the other, turning the match into a stalemate quickly. Eventually, Niko decided it was best to change up the strategy. "Energy ball now!"

"Rock wrecker!" Palmer commanded. Both spheres collided in the center of the battlefield, but torterra secretly conjured a second energy ball that blew through the cloud of dirt that resulted and hit rhyperior directly in the chest. The drill pokémon took a knee from the attack just when torterra launched a barrage of leaves at it, adding insult to injury. "Use rock wrecker once more, rhyperior! We can do this!"

Rhyperior roared out, conjuring a third, and final, massive gray rock and launching it at torterra. Once more, torterra replied with energy ball, but covered himself with a storm of razor leaves. "Now, use energy ball again!" Niko shouted, and Palmer turned to his right to see torterra standing there with another energy ball on the way, along with a torrent of green leaves. The dual attack hit rhyperior, knocking it forwards in defeat.

"Rhyperior is unable to battle, torterra wins! Tycoon Palmer will send out his third and final pokémon!" The referee declared.

"Well, Niko, you're doing quite well for yourself. I wish you the best of luck with this final pokémon. Dragonite, I choose you!"

"Torterra, let's do this! Use energy ball!" Niko commanded, thrusting his hand forward. Torterra conjured a ball of pure energy and launched it at dragonite, who took the hit and didn't move. "Huh?"

"Dragon dance!" Palmer shouted, crossing his arms. A red and purple mist surrounded dragonite. Palmer then nodded, seeming pleased with his pokémon. "And again!"

"Torterra, keep it up! Use energy ball!" Niko shouted, unsure of what else to use. Crunch was too far for the continent pokémon to use, and earthquake wouldn't affect dragonite, who was a flying type. For nearly a minute, dragonite consumed itself in the mist. Suddenly, Palmer smirked. "Oh, no…"

"Dragonite, aerial ace!" Palmer cried out, his deep voice echoing through the room. Dragonite disappeared into the air before reappearing and slashing down on torterra's shell, forcing the continent pokémon to the ground, defeated.

"Torterra is unable to battle, dragonite wins!" The referee declared.

"Luxray, you're up!" Niko commanded, re-summoning the gleam eyes pokémon. "Use crunch!"

Luxray charged forward before leaping into the air and attempting to bite down on dragonite's leg, as the dragon pokémon was floating in the air. However, Palmer commanded the dragon type to use dragon claw in response. Dragonite's claws began to glow with a purple aura and it slashed down on luxray, again with blinding speed. Next thing Niko knew, his pokémon was on the ground, also defeated.

"Luxray is unable to battle, dragonite wins! Challenger Niko will send out his final pokémon!" The referee declared.

"What the…" Niko said in shock. He shook his head. "Alright then. We can do this. Staraptor, I choose you!" He said, hoping that his quickest pokémon could keep up with the unusually fast dragonite. "Use aerial ace!" He shouted.

"Dragon claw!" Palmer commanded.

"Double team!" Niko directed. Staraptor was able to dodge the dragon claw and strike dragonite—but barely. The dragon pokémon noticed only one bird fly past it, and turned with incredible speed and strike staraptor in the back with dragon claw, sending him crashing into the ground.

"Aerial ace!" Palmer shouted. Dragonite dove towards the ground and slashed at staraptor once more, defeating the predator pokémon.

"Staraptor is unable to battle, dragonite wins! And the victory goes to Tower Tycoon Palmer!" The referee declared.

"Staraptor, return…" Niko said, frowning as he did so. _How did I lose that? What did Palmer do with dragon dance?_ He turned to see Lauren getting out of the stands. She walked over and hugged him. "Good luck, alright? He's pretty tough, as you can see."

"I think I've got a strategy around it. But thanks." She let go and walked up to her end of the field. Palmer then returned a minute later with his pokémon healed and ready to go a second time. When he was ready, he nodded to the referee, who explained the rules once more.

"Milotic, I choose you!" Palmer shouted.

"Roselia, let's go!" Lauren commanded. "Use toxic spikes!" The thorn pokémon nodded, shooting out purple spikes from her rose-arms like bullets, scattering them across the other end of the field. "Now, magical leaf!"

"Ice beam!" Palmer commanded. The jet of ice was blocked by the magical leaf, which roselia manipulated to create a wall before sending the ice-covered leaves back at milotic, striking her across the body.

"Now, petal dance!" Lauren shouted, pumping her fist. Roselia spun around, conjuring a vortex of pink petals that spun through the air and flew at milotic, who tried to soften the blow with surf. "Magical leaf again! Don't let up!" Roselia nodded, leaping forward, spinning, and shooting purple leaves out of her rose-arms. Like with Niko's torterra, the dual attack was successful against milotic, distracting the tender pokémon enough for Lauren to continue her onslaught. Milotic tried once more to use ice beam, but roselia was quicker, using another petal dance to defeat her opponent.

"Milotic is unable to battle, roselia wins! Tycoon Palmer will send out his second pokémon!" The referee declared.

"Rhyperior, I choose you." Palmer said, throwing his second pokéball into the air, summoning the massive charcoal-colored pokémon. "Use rock wrecker!" Palmer said just after rhyperior felt the poison from toxic spikes take effect.

"Roselia, petal dance!" Lauren commanded. Rhyperior's rock wrecker blew through the tornado of petals, but just barely missing roselia, who dove to the left and launched a series of magical leaves at the drill pokémon, who used earthquake just after taking the attack. The thorn pokémon struggled to stay on her leafy feet while the ground underneath her was aggressively shaking. Roselia fell forward, landing on her rose-arms just as rhyperior created another rock wrecker.

"Launch it!" Palmer shouted. Rhyperior roared out, sending the gray rock hurdling towards roselia, who jumped into the air towards the rock. Roselia landed on the rock and used it to jump off of and launch a magical leaf directly at rhyperior. The attack landed, bringing rhyperior to a knee. "Crunch!"

"Petal dance!" Lauren commanded. Roselia, while still in the air, spun around as if in a performance, conjuring a tornado of petals around her. Nevertheless, while in the air, rhyperior grabbed onto roselia with mouth, slamming his teeth down on the thorn pokémon. He then dropped her to the ground and used earthquake.

Lauren grit her teeth. She directed one more magical leaf while the ground shook underneath them. The attack hit rhyperior, but so did the earthquake. As rhyperior fell backwards, roselia fainted.

"Roselia and rhyperior are both unable to battle! Tycoon Palmer and Challenger Lauren will send out their next pokémon!"

Lauren knew exactly what Palmer would use, and so she countered it to the best of her ability. "Glaceon, let's go!" _Let's get ahead of that dragon dance and land some attacks on this thing_ she thought to herself.

"Dragonite!" Palmer commanded, summoning his powerful dragon type. "Use thunderwave!"

"Icy wind!" Lauren commanded. While glaceon was able to conjure a cold gale behind her that struck dragonite, the orange dragon cringed before summoning a wave of electric sparks that struck glaceon, slowing her down to the point where she couldn't move. "I-icy wind!"

"Dragon dance, please." Palmer said calmly. Dragonite stood still, the red and purple mist returning to surround the dragon pokémon. The entirety of glaceon's immobility dragonite stood there, focused completely on itself. Palmer then smirked, and Lauren grit her teeth once more. As soon as glaceon could move, Lauren shouted for her to use ice fang.

The snow hat pokémon burst forward, sprinting as fast as she could, fangs baring a chilly touch to them. However, once she was close, dragonite looked up, the mist disappearing.

"Aerial ace!" Palmer commanded loudly. The dragon pokémon shot forward, crashing into glaceon and striking her across the side, knocking her backwards towards Lauren. "Follow up with dragon claw!"

"Ice fang!" Lauren shouted. Dragonite was relentless, however: the dragon pokémon struck once more at glaceon, this time with purple claws. Glaceon fell back to the ground, her teeth losing their cold touch. "Err…icy wind!"

"Dragon claw once more!" Palmer said, knowing fully well that it was the end for glaceon. And he was right—as soon as the dragon pokémon made contact with glaceon, she collapsed in defeat.

"Glaceon is unable to battle, dragonite wins! Lauren will now send out her third and final pokémon!" The referee declared.

"Haunter, I choose you!" Lauren shouted out, feeling nervous. Palmer's dragonite was unusually powerful. And it was because of dragon dance. She just needed a way out of it. "Hypnosis!"

"Aerial ace!" Palmer commanded. Before haunter could even attack, dragonite was upon him, slashing downwards with his claw, white tendrils emitting from them. Haunter crashed into the ground, shooting up a dark pulse in response. Dragonite dodged the move and landed on the ground on the other end of the field, urging haunter on.

"Shadow punch!" Lauren shouted, thrusting her fist forward. Haunter nodded, using one of his disconnected hands and launching a spectral fist at the dragon pokémon. The attack hit dragonite, who quickly got back to a standing position, glaring down at its opponent. "D-dark pulse!"

"Dragon claw!" Palmer commanded. Dragonite burst forward once more, striking at haunter with a claw lit up in a purple and red aura. The attack struck haunter across the face, launching him backwards, past and through Lauren, and into the back wall. Lauren turned around, shivering a little, as she saw haunter collapse to the ground in defeat.

"Haunter is unable to battle, dragonite is the winner! And the victory goes to Tower Tycoon Palmer!" The referee declared.

"Return, haunter. You did a great job, and I'm very proud of you." Lauren said, pulling a strand of light blue hair behind her ear. She watched as her friends and Scott walked up to her. Niko was the first to greet her, hugging her.

"You did great. I'm proud of you." Niko said quietly.

"I know. Thanks." Lauren replied before letting go and seeing Scott and Palmer facing them.

"Niko, Lauren, while I did appreciate those battles, it appears that you still have a lot to learn before you're ready to face me again. I strongly recommend you face the other four battle facilities, earn their prints, and then come back to me. If I remember correctly, then that would be a full pass around the entire island, so it works out just fine. Right, Scott?"

"Indeed." Scott said, nodding his head. "Niko, Lauren, the closest facility to here is the Battle Hall located in the Survival Area. It's just north of here—roughly a couple of days' travel. You shouldn't have any issue getting there…hopefully."

"Thanks Scott, and you too, Palmer." Niko said, frowning slightly. "What is dragon dance, exactly?"

"Hah!" Palmer said with a laugh. "I figured it wasn't clear to you. Yes, dragon dance is an attack that strengthens a dragon's other attacks, as well as speeds it up. It's a highly dangerous move, and if either of you have any chance of defeating me, you'll need to find a way around it." He reached his hand out to Niko. "Best of luck, both of you. I look forward to our rematches."

Niko and Lauren both shook the Tycoon's hand before turning to exit the Battle Tower with Brittany, JJ, and Scott. Once they were on the ground floor, Scoot said his farewells to the group, and the four trainers exited towards the Pokémon Center. With the sun setting on the ocean beyond the Fight Area's port, Niko and Lauren felt more confident than ever about their upcoming challenges.


	3. A multi-battle among friends!

**Episode 3: A multi-battle among friends!**

In the aftermath of their battle against Palmer, Niko and Lauren went to the Pokémon Center in the Fight Area to heal their teams and get started on their journey towards the Survival Area. Before they took off, Niko wanted to contact Pallet Town and grab a couple of his other pokémon to train with. Now knowing what Palmer was capable of, Niko wanted to be as prepared as he could be moving forward.

"Thanks Mom, Dad. I really appreciate it. How's rampardos adjusting?" Niko asked during his video call to his family.

"He's doing just fine, actually." Mom said. "He is itching to train more, but he loves socializing with the other pokémon. Him and aggron seem to get along particularly well."

Niko smiled. He was worried about rampardos not connecting well with the others due to his injury. To know that he is adjusting well and even making friends was music to his ears. "Well, thanks again. Talk to you both soon!"

"Bye Niko! Love you!" His parents said before hanging up the call. Niko breathed heavily, pulling out his two pokéballs from the transfer machine. He then got out of his seat and joined his friends, all of whom were eating dinner in their usual booth.

"How's the family?" Brittany asked as Niko sat down next to her.

"Great! Dad's fine—he just had a doctor's appointment. And rampardos seems to be doing well at home, too. He doesn't like being so constrained by his injury, but he is making friends with the others." Niko said with a cheerful expression.

"That's great to hear! Hopefully he's ready by the time you have to challenge Palmer again. I'm sure rampardos would love a crack at his dragonite."

"Honestly, I think he could." Niko said, looking up at his friends. "I really believe that."

* * *

The following morning, the group began their journey north towards the Survival Area. As usual, they would stop for some time to train and eat before moving on once again. Only this time, the terrain was far more wondrous to look at.

Like with the Fight Area, route 225 was filled with palm trees lining the edges of black hills, small and large. Niko, at least, found himself impressed with the natural world around him, and would occasionally make a comment about a waterfall he would see, or a massive palm tree hanging at an arc through the sky. He's never really seen palm trees in person before, and found them fascinating to stare at.

But above all, the most important task before him and Lauren was to train, for two different competitions—the upcoming Battle Hall, and their inevitable rematch with Palmer. To help with his training, Niko brought back two of his reserves—glalie and venusaur, giving him a full team once again. The face and seed pokémon were eager to get back in the game, just as Niko was excited to bring them back.

On their third day on route 225, the group was sitting down after lunch, watching the river in front of them run down a black hill at a comfortable incline. "Nature's so amazing…" Niko said in awe.

"Niko, it's a river." JJ commented dryly.

"I know. It's just…growing up in Pallet Town, I never really got to see much of the outside word. Just a small town on the edge of the ocean. Gets kind of boring after a while." He pointed to the palm trees. "See, if I had never gone on these adventures, I would never have seen a palm tree. Or these hills. Or Mt. Coronet. Or the desert back in Hoenn."

"You've got a good point." JJ said before taking a drink of soda. Then, out of the blue, an idea popped into his head. "Say, you guys want to have a battle?"

"A battle?" Niko, Lauren, and Brittany all turned to JJ. "What do you mean by that?" Brittany asked.

"I mean, we could do a double battle. Two of us versus the other two. It'd be fun, and we give Niko and Lauren some training against real opponents."

Niko scratched his chin, feeling the stubble on it. "Yeah, I'm down. What should the teams be?"

"Well, how about me and Brittany versus you and Lauren? We each use three pokémon, so that it would be an even six-on-six rematch." JJ suggested.

"I like this. Let's go!" Lauren said, leaping up onto her feet, her blue hair flying behind her. "C'mon, Niko! Let's win this!"

"You betcha." Niko said, scrambling up onto his feet. The four stood on the edge of the river with ample spaces between the two pairs. Each of their pokéballs at the ready, they all sent them out at once:

"Roselia, let's go!"

"Glalie, I choose you!"

"Blaziken, you're up!"

"Umbreon, let's go!"

Once on the field, the battle began. Niko commanded glalie to use ice beam on umbreon, who countered the attack with shadow ball. Meanwhile, roselia set up with toxic spikes, much to Niko's pleasure. Blaziken burst forward to use blaze kick on roselia, who successfully evaded and retaliated with magical leaf, smacking the tall chicken in the side.

"Blaziken, switch it up! Use blaze kick on glalie!" Brittany commanded. The blaze pokémon nodded, spinning her talon around to hit the face pokémon, who blocked with protect. Umbreon then also attacked glalie, leaping forward with faint attack while glalie was busy defending himself against blaziken.

"Glalie, double team, and then ice beam umbreon!" Niko commanded. The ice type obliged, duplicating himself into half of a dozen copies and all launching jets of ice at umbreon, who replied with faint attack, revealing the real glalie, both for himself and for blaziken, who spouted out a flamethrower at the rest of the duplicates before jumping forward to use blaze kick.

Glalie blocked with protect once more, and roselia attempted to distract blaziken with magical leaf. Brittany then asked blaziken to turn her attention back to the thorn pokémon, who used grasswhistle to try and put blaziken to sleep. However, the attack was interrupted by a shadow ball from umbreon, which knocked roselia over and gave blaziken the opportunity to strike.

"Blaziken, flare blitz!" Brittany commanded. The blaze pokémon charged forward at her opponent, knocking roselia out of the battle.

"Roselia, return." Lauren said, since there was no referee to declare a pokémon's defeat. "Lopunny, I choose you!"

"Blaziken, blaze kick on glalie!" Brittany directed.

"Umbreon, dig on lopunny!" JJ shouted. The midnight pokémon leapt into the ground, burrowing underneath the field. Lopunny waited, watching the ground under her, hoping for any sign of a movement. "And…now!"

Umbreon leapt out from underneath lopunny, forcing Lauren to command the use of bounce. Before umbreon could effectively strike at his opponent, lopunny was high in the air now.

"Use hi jump kick!" Lauren called out. Just as blaziken was breaking through a battle-weakened protect from glalie, lopunny crash landed on umbreon with hi jump kick. Both glalie and umbreon were launched backwards in their respective directions. The face pokémon was out, but umbreon still had some fight left in him. "Use thunderpunch!"

"Faint attack!" JJ commanded. Umbreon disappeared while lopunny charged forward, evading a flamethrower from blaziken in the process by using agility. Once umbreon reappeared and struck the rabbit in the side, lopunny quickly spun around to her left and socked the eeveelution in the face, stunning it and causing it to crumble to the ground. "Finish it off with hi jump kick!"

"Blaziken, use flamethrower!" Brittany shouted.

"Not so fast! Glalie, return." Niko said, shuffling around pokéballs. "Staraptor, let's go! Use aerial ace on blaziken!"

While the predator pokémon distracted blaziken, lopunny landed on top of umbreon, defeating the midnight pokémon.

"Umbreon, return. Growlithe, I choose you!" JJ shouted. "Use flame wheel on lopunny!"

"Blaziken, blaze kick!" Brittany commanded. The aerial ace struck blaziken, who then whacked staraptor in the side of the face with a flaming talon, knocking the flying type into the ground. Lopunny then ignored growlithe's flame wheel and charged at blaziken with a thunderpunch while staraptor dove in for another aerial ace. However, only staraptor was successful this time, since growlithe landed a flame wheel on lopunny, knocking the rabbit onto the ground and leaving a burn mark. Blaziken, meanwhile, was knocked back to the ground by staraptor. "Use flare blitz!"

"Double team, staraptor, and then quick attack into aerial ace!" Niko shouted. Staraptor duplicated himself, letting blaziken miss the attack before bursting around the fire type and then smacking blaziken from behind with aerial ace. The blaze pokémon crashed face-first into the ground, defeated.

"Blaziken, return. Pikachu, let's go!" Brittany shouted. "Use thunderbolt on staraptor!"

"Growlithe, flame wheel on lopunny!" JJ directed.

"Lopunny, bounce on growlithe!"

"Staraptor, close combat on growlithe!" Niko shouted.

All four pokémon collided their attack together, creating a mess of creatures, with only lopunny and pikachu coming out of the brawl unharmed. Staraptor was laying on the ground stunned, and growlithe was rolling through the grass after being hit by lopunny. Brittany then commanded pikachu to use volt tackle on staraptor. Lopunny meanwhile used hi jump kick on growlithe. The puppy pokémon evaded the attack swiftly and then belted out a flamethrower, hitting the rabbit in the other side and leaving a second burn mark. Staraptor, upon getting hit by volt tackle, fainted.

"Staraptor, return. Torterra, I choose you!" Niko shouted, summoning his final pokémon. "Use energy ball on pikachu!"

"Lopunny, hi jump kick on growlithe!" Lauren commanded.

"Flame wheel on torterra!" JJ shouted. The puppy pokémon once more dodged lopunny, forcing the rabbit to crash down on the ground a second time. Lopunny cried out as she crumbled onto the grass below her now injured foot. Pikachu then added insult to injury and defeated the rabbit pokémon with thunderbolt before getting hit with energy ball and collapsing onto the ground, down but not defeated.

"Lopunny, return. Haunter, you're up!" Lauren shouted, also sending out her third and final pokémon. "Niko…we have to pick it up here. We don't want to lose to these guys…"

"I know. We got this, babe." Niko said. "Torterra, earthquake!"

"Pikachu, jump into the air!" Brittany shouted. But she knew it wouldn't last long—torterra could keep the earthquake going as long as he wished. While pikachu was in the air, the continent pokémon attempted to strike her down with energy ball, but the attack missed, as pikachu had already landed and fell off balance, crashing onto the shaking ground.

"Growlithe, flamethrower!" JJ shouted, trying to at least get a move in before growlithe would succumb to the earthquake as well. Eventually, torterra ended the attack, and pikachu and growlithe both fell.

"Pikachu, return. Vespiquen, I choose you!" Brittany shouted.

"Growlithe, great job, bud. Shroomish, let's go!" JJ called out. "Use stun spore on haunter!"

"Haunter, reply with dark pulse!"

"Torterra, razor leaf on shroomish!" Niko shouted, trying to deflect the stun spore with a torrent of leaves. The tactic worked, but torterra then felt the onslaught of bees from vespiquen. Torterra then began charging forward towards the queen pokémon, fighting through the attack order. "Use crunch on vespiquen!"

"Bug bite!" Brittany shouted.

Meanwhile, haunter and shroomish were fighting it out. To both JJ's and Lauren's surprise, the mushroom pokémon managed to hold his own, mainly by moving away and evading haunter's dark pulse and shadow punch. He even used stun spore to somehow cover himself from the hypnosis attack, a strategy that JJ didn't even think would work. Throughout the battle, it made JJ wish he had focused on training shroomish, and the thought filled his mind with regret. Once shroomish finally got hit with a dark pulse, he flew backwards, landing in JJ's waiting arms.

"You okay?" JJ asked. The mushroom pokémon nodded, jumping back out and facing haunter. Suddenly, he began to glow bright white, momentarily halting the match. Shroomish grew from a short, stubby mushroom into a bipedal pokémon with kangaroo-like qualities. The newly evolved form had a mushroom cap as a head, a set of frilled segments around his neck, and two red claws for each arm and leg. He now had a tail with four forest green spheres running around it.

" _Breloom, the mushroom pokémon. Its short arms stretch when it throws punches. Its technique is equal to that of pro boxers_."

"Breloom…? What the heck?" JJ said as he pocketed his pokédex. "Why evolve now?" Breloom turned to his trainer and simply shrugged, as if he didn't quite understand it either. Nevertheless, he took advantage of it and burst forward with a newfound speed towards torterra, his left claw now glowing bright white. To everyone's surprise, the claw extended _out_ of breloom's body and slammed against torterra's forehead. The continent pokémon then let out an energy ball, hitting breloom and knocking the mushroom pokémon back into vespiquen's arms.

"That was mach punch, JJ." Brittany said with a wink. "Vespiquen, use power gem on haunter!"

"Dark pulse on vespiquen!"

"Torterra, earthquake!"

"Breloom, stun spore on torterra!" JJ shouted, realizing that he needed to at least slow down torterra. If he could do that, and eliminate the continent pokémon, then he and Brittany had a good shot at taking down haunter together. For the most part, the plan seemed to work, as torterra was paralyzed and halted the earthquake. "Now, mach punch!"

Breloom bounded forward once more, this time leaping high into the air and landing the extended mach punch directly on top of torterra's head with enough force to knock the entire pokémon into the ground. Torterra fell to the ground, defeated.

"Torterra, return. You got me, JJ. Well done." Niko admitted, shrugging with a smile. Lauren, however, didn't seem as pleased.

"Great, now I have to defeat them both…" She said, almost irritably.

"It's going to be fine, Lauren. Haunter is one of your strongest pokémon, if not your strongest. You can do this!"

"Let's hope so…haunter, use dark pulse on breloom, and shadow punch on vespiquen!" She commanded. Using both of his disconnected hands, haunter shot out two attacks at once, hitting both breloom—who had made another failed attempt at stun spore—and vespiquen—who made a successful attempt at power gem. Haunter rolled backwards after colliding with the power gem, but then used hypnosis on breloom before moving back on vespiquen.

This time, the stun spore didn't deflect from the hypnosis, and breloom crashed down onto the ground. Meanwhile, haunter shot out another spectral fist, hitting vespiquen directly in the abdomen and following up with another quick dark pulse, defeating the queen bee.

"Vespiquen, return…well done, Lauren." Brittany said with a smile on her face. JJ, however, was gritting his teeth. "You can do this, JJ."

"I sure hope so…breloom, wake up! We can win this!"

"Dream eater!" Lauren commanded. Haunter closed his own eyes, trying to take a step into breloom's mind. His attempt was evident when breloom began convulsing a little in his sleep, indicating that the attack was a success. However, it ended when breloom woke up in a daze. Taking advantage of the brief amnesia, haunter shot out a dark pulse, ending breloom as well.

"Breloom, return. You did a great job. Way better than I had expected, honestly. Take a nice, long rest." He then looked up to Lauren. "You were great out there, Lauren." Brittany and Niko both nodded in agreement, although the latter seemed slightly perturbed. He did his best not to show it, although later on Brittany would admit she noticed it as well.

"Thanks guys. But I couldn't have done it with Niko. Although…" She looked up accusingly at her boyfriend. "It would have been nice if I didn't have to defeat both of them by myself." She said with a teasing smile.

"I'll try harder next time, I promise." Niko said, kissing her forehead, which made Lauren blush slightly. "Anyways, we should get to Survival Area so our pokémon can properly rest up, right?"

"Indeed!" JJ said before running over to his bag, which had a sleeping togetic laying on it. The others walked back to grab their things as well and set off through the palm forest towards their next destination.

During that time, Niko reflected on his battle. It was clear to him that his battling was off somewhat, but he couldn't pinpoint how. Nevertheless, he committed to focusing more on it in the future, as he would need to figure out the cause of the problem and solve it before he even had a chance of re-matching Palmer, much less winning any prints in the Battle Frontier.

* * *

 **Author's note: So shroomish finally got...something! I'll admit, one of my bigger regrets in terms of roster choices was shroomish. I had originally hoped for him to have a bigger role in the group dynamic but never really followed through on it. Which is a personal shame, since I actually kind of like breloom. Oh, well. Also, something's clearly up with Niko? What is it? Will it be resolved? What will happen once they get to the Survival Area? Hope you enjoyed!**


	4. The ultimate moves

**Episode 4: The ultimate moves**

"So…this is the Survival Area…?" JJ asked as they looked down at their next destination from the top of a hill. The Survival Area itself was a small town, akin to Solaceon Town or Celestic Town. However, there was a massive stadium on the northwestern end—in the side of a mountain—that seemed to stick out like a sore thumb.

"Yep, this is the Survival Area…" Niko responded, also in awe at the dichotomy sitting in front of him. They walked down the hill into town, eager to heal up their pokémon after their multi-battle the previous day. Entering the Pokémon Center, they approached Nurse Joy as usual, who took their pokémon and brought them up to a healing machine.

Just as they turned to head towards a booth, they saw a familiar face sitting in the closest one. He turned to face them, his jet-black hair unmoving. "Hey!" Fay said cheerfully, getting up to greet his friends and former travelling companions. "What're you all doing here?"

"Competing in the Battle Frontier." Niko said. "What are _you_ doing here?"

"I'm here on some business for Oak, but while I was at it I figured I'd check out this place. Niko, there's something I'd like to show you, actually." Fay said as they all sat down. When Niko raised an eyebrow with intrigue, Fay continued explaining. "Did you bring venusaur?" Niko nodded. "Great. There are apparently special moves that 'starter pokémon' can learn. An old lady up in the mountains east of the Battle Hall teaches pokémon how to use them. Would you be interested?"

"Would I ever?" Niko replied. _This move might help me beat Palmer…I definitely need to give it a try_. "When can we go?"

"She's busy for the rest of the day—already checked. But we could go there tomorrow, if you're interested. She seems nice, from the sound of it." Fay shrugged. "But I don't know. I would like to have charizard learn this move, in case we ever find ourselves in a rut."

"How powerful are these moves?" JJ asked.

"Supposedly some of the most powerful moves out there. I only remember the fire move—blast burn. There are grass and water moves as well. But again, only pokémon given out to trainers—or 'starter pokémon'—can learn them. That's why I asked if Niko had venusaur on him, since they're close enough that learning the move might be easier."

"Well, he has torterra as well. Couldn't they both learn the move?" Brittany asked.

"Yeah, I'm sure he could. I don't know what this woman's requirements for tutoring are, though." Fay said. "Anyways, I'm looking forward to this! It'll just be like old times!"

Niko nodded, happy that he was working with Fay again, and even more elated that he got to spend time with venusaur _and_ learn a move that could win him the Tower Print from Palmer. It was all so exciting to him.

The following morning, the group met up with Fay outside of the Pokémon Center to begin their trek towards the Move Tutor's house. The trek took half an hour, with the five of them traversing uneven—and sometimes unstable—terrain. The entire time, Niko looked out on the island to the south of them, marveling at the forest of palm trees littered with small black hills. In the far-off distance, he could see what looked like a desert. He stopped for a moment to take it all in, and only continued on at the urging of his friends.

They eventually make it to the top, where a small house sat roughly a hundred yards away. Niko and Fay first approached the door, with the latter knocking. They could hear someone moving around in there, but after a couple of minutes there was no response, and Niko was about to turn around and leave when the door opened. Behind the front door stood an elderly woman, shorter than the both of them but still taller than Lauren. Her graying hair was tied up in a ponytail that fell down to her shoulders. She wore thick-rimmed glasses that rested atop a crooked nose.

"Hello?" She asked in a slightly crass voice. "What do you want?"

"Hi, are you Irma?" The lady nodded. "Hello. I'm Fay, and this is Niko, and we were wondering if you could teach the both of us the ultimate moves?"

"Why?" She demanded.

"Well, merely out of interest." Fay explained. "You see, I'm a researcher, and Niko's—"

"Not a good reason. No one battles 'out of interest.' Thank you, good day." Irma then slammed the door, leaving Niko and Fay standing there looking stupid.

Niko sighed before knocking on the door again. Once more, Irma opened the door and demanded to know why they were still there. "You see, we're both trying to beat the Battle Frontier, and to do that we want to learn these ultimate moves, and you're the only one that can help us."

"I don't help new trainers. End of story."

"Who's saying we're new trainers?" Niko shot back. "I've competed in four Pokémon Leagues already. Fay here in two."

"Oh? And how well did you both do?" They both explained their placements. "Top 8 three times in a row? Pathetic, but it's clear you need some help. Fine, whatever. I'll help you both. But only today. After that, you're on your own, got it?"

Niko and Fay both nodded eagerly, and they waited as Irma grabbed some materials and met them outside on the black rocky surface surrounding her house. They then walked a distance from the house, presumably to provide ample space to learn these powerful moves. Irma then demanded they send out their pokémon. Fay sent out a familiar orange winged lizard—charizard—and Niko sent out his venusaur.

"Hey buddy, this lady's going to teach us a powerful new move. Are you ready?" Niko asked. Venusaur simply nodded his head before turning to the woman.

"Alright, charizard and venusaur…been a while since I've tutored these pokémon. Usually trainers want me to help out the pokémon that cook Rowan gives them. Finally, a little variation…" She said while rolling her eyes. "Anyways! The moves you'll be learning today are frenzy plant for venusaur, and blast burn for charizard. They are the most powerful known moves that each type can learn, and as such they require an incredible amount of energy. Neither of your pokémon will be able to attack for some time after using the move, so it is best used as a last resort to win the match. Understand me so far?" Niko and Fay nodded, as did venusaur and charizard. "Excellent."

She then summoned two pokémon of her own—a meganium and typhlosion. Irma ordered each pokémon to use their respective moves, with meganium going first. Niko and venusaur watched carefully as meganium's body began to glow a light green. The herb pokémon raised her front two feet and then slammed down on the ground in front of them. As it did, massive roots with spikes erupted out of the ground and then arched forward, moving to attack the air in front of them, as if they were striking an opponent. Niko's eyes widened at the sheer power of the move. _Venusaur is capable of learning_ that?

Next was typhlosion. The volcano pokémon roared out, engulfing itself in bright orange fire. It then bent down and slammed its right fist into the ground, and energy began to move through the ground. Once it reached an invisible target, the energy burst upwards out of the ground in an explosion of orange flames, similar to a volcanic eruption, or a geyser.

"There. Those are the moves. Any questions so far?" Niko and Fay shook their heads. "Good. Now that you've seen the moves, I want you to attempt them yourselves. Venusaur, you'll start. Feel the earth beneath you. The natural energy in the world. That's how you will be able to command the roots for frenzy plant. It's important that you learn to become one with the natural world, or else the roots will run wild and you won't be able to control where they go or what they hit."

Venusaur nodded, closing his eyes and attempting to feel around for the earth underneath him. Niko tried doing the same, calming himself down and putting himself in a meditative state. After what seemed like several minutes, they both opened their eyes. Nothing.

"Hmph. Alright, think about what might have gone wrong while I turn to charizard. Now, like venusaur you must also focus on the energy in the natural world. Only this time, it requires less manipulation than frenzy plant, since there is a single eruption of fire that you must control. However, it requires far more energy to produce a single burst, while frenzy plant's energy is more evenly distributed among the different roots. Make sense?" Charizard and Fay both nodded. "Excellent. So, the first exercise is the same. Charizard, I want you to focus on the natural world underneath you. Search for the fire. Search for the energy hidden underneath the ground. Go."

Like with venusaur, charizard closed his eyes and attempted to look for the energy buried in the earth. After what seemed like an eternity, the flame pokémon opened his eyes to see the woman shaking her head.

"Both of you! You have to _search_! You have to then become _one_ with the world! If you cannot do that, then I cannot teach you, and you cannot succeed in your endeavors. Try again, now!"

Meanwhile Lauren, Brittany, and JJ were watching all of this from a small bench next to the Irma's house.

"This doesn't seem like a lot of fun for either of them…" Lauren admitted. "Irma is kind of a kook."

"Agreed." Brittany replied with a nod. "She's irritable, for seemingly no reason. I wonder if there's anything that makes her act like this."

"Either way, it doesn't look like an easy move to understand." JJ added. "But this will be really helpful to Niko if he and venusaur can master this move."

Lauren nodded. "I would ask if infernape could be taught this move, but I don't want to deal with that woman. Maybe Fay will teach it to me later…"

"I'm sure he would if you asked." Brittany said with an eager smile. "He's always around to help others."

"I hope Niko is doing alright, though." Lauren said, watching her boyfriend and venusaur focusing on learning frenzy plant. "He's been off the past couple of days."

JJ nodded. "True. I think he just needs a win under his belt, y'know? The last battle he won was against you."

"Well, the last time I won was against Ian!" Lauren protested.

"Right, but I think rampardos' injury played a role in it. Plus, he was against Hunter, who wasn't nice to him at all. And your matches against Niko and Palmer were closer than his against Hunter and Palmer." Brittany explained.

Lauren nodded, not saying much more. She continued watching Niko, trying to understand him better. The biggest problem of his, from her perspective, was that he didn't open up to her as often about his issues, or to anyone. She found that Niko would, but only when she persuaded him to. He would never do it on his own volition. She sighed. "Hopefully we can get through all of this."

Meanwhile, Niko and venusaur kept trying to use frenzy plant. Each time, they would close their eyes and try to feel the earth beneath them. Niko didn't have to, and was by no means required to, but he wanted to feel what venusaur was feeling, and be one with his pokémon.

After several hours, he began to notice a green aura surrounding the seed pokémon. Cheering, he then was dismayed when venusaur wasn't able to call up the spiked roots from the ground. "Dammit…" He muttered to himself, even though venusaur could hear it. Turning to his pokémon, Niko realized the error of his ways. "Sorry, didn't mean that. I'm just…I wish we were stronger." Venusaur nodded, and nuzzled Niko's side with his head. Niko returned the gesture with a rub atop the grass type's head. "But we're going to get this, buddy. You and me, together we're going to master frenzy plant and defeat each Frontier Brain." He looked venusaur in the eye. "I promise you that."

Just as he said that, he heard an explosion off in the distance. Looking over, he saw an eruption of fire from under the black earth of the mountaintop. Leaning over, he saw Fay nod approvingly as charizard pumped his fist.

"Congrats, man." Niko said with a smile. Venusaur nodded his approval in the lizard's direction.

"Thanks, Niko. Have you gotten it yet?" Fay asked. When Niko shook his head, Fay shrugged. "You're going to get it eventually. Just don't give up."

"Absolutely, Fay. We definitely won't."

Irma then walked up to the both of them, the sun setting behind her. "Well! Charizard, it seems like you've figured out how to use blast burn. Very well done. Venusaur…you have to practice more if you ever hope to control the ultimate move." She looked down in disappointment. "There is no more time for me to teach you. If you hope to master frenzy plant, you must learn on your own. I wish you luck."

"Thank you so much for the opportunity, Irma. I promise that venusaur and I will continue to work on this and successfully master frenzy plant."

"No need to promise me. Work." Irma said, turning and walking away. "Now leave me. Good evening."

Niko and Fay looked at each other, shrugging. They then returned venusaur and charizard and, with the other three, began their trek back down to Survival Area by dark. Along the way, Fay explained to Lauren how blast burn worked, as she had expressed interest. The entire way, Niko was deep in his own thoughts, trying to understand what went wrong with venusaur and frenzy plant. Occasionally, he would look up at Fay and Lauren, the former of whom was cracking jokes and generally acting charismatic around Lauren, who returned the jokes, sometimes even at Niko's expense.

Niko hardly ever felt jealous about women, but in that moment, he certainly did. He was silent until they got back to the Survival Area.

"So, Niko," Lauren said, hugging his side. "When are we going to take on the Battle Hall?"

"I'm fine with whenever, but we could go tomorrow if you feel ready."

"Do you?" She asked, looking up with a slightly concerned expression. "I've noticed you've been quiet most of the way back."

Niko thought about it for a moment, and then nodded. "Yeah, I'm ready. Let's do it tomorrow."

Lauren smiled. "I'm glad. I think we'll win this time."

"Me too." Niko said before kissing her forehead. "Me too."


	5. On the stage! (Part 1)

**Episode 5: On the stage! (Part 1)**

Lauren woke up the next morning to see Niko out of their bed and in the practice battlefield with his full team. Rubbing her eyes, she watched as glalie shot backwards across the window and use an ice beam on an undefined target. She sighed and got up to get dressed and ready for the day.

That day, she and Niko would compete in the Battle Hall against the Frontier Brain, whomever he or she was. She kept hoping that this wouldn't be the type of facility that forces her to use rental pokémon. She wanted to use her team and her own strategies, and she knew that Niko felt the same way.

After having breakfast with Brittany, JJ, and Niko, she went to the practice battlefield to work with her team for the rest of the morning. While she watched them practicing their moves, she wondered what more she could even teach them. She wanted infernape to at least attempt to learn blast burn, and for an hour or so in the morning she, Fay, and charizard worked with the fire monkey on the basics of the ultimate move. Meanwhile, the others mostly practiced their ordinary movesets, except for glaceon, who was trying to learn ice beam. However, the snow hat pokémon had difficulty focusing the attack, and at one point got some pointers from Niko's glalie, who had mastered the move over a year ago.

The whole time Niko watched, wondering which pokémon he would use during his match against the next Frontier Brain. They still didn't know much about the Battle Hall, despite their efforts to do some research on it. So essentially, they were all going in blind, and that irked Niko a little. He didn't like surprises, especially ones like this, where he preferred to be as prepared as possible. Nevertheless, he worked with his six pokémon as much as he could before the afternoon, when they would all head over to the Battle Hall for their match.

As they left the Pokémon Center several hours later, both Niko and Lauren felt a little more confident about their chances in the Battle Hall. Fortunately, it didn't take long to get to the Battle Hall. Unfortunately, there was a line to get in. The Survival Area was a small town. How were there so many people?

The group puzzled over this for some time before JJ and Fay went up to the front to get answers. At the front of the line, near the entrance, was a pair of security guards with two growlithes. As JJ and Fay approached them, they both held out a hand to stop them.

"Wait in line, boys." One of them said.

"Sorry, we're just wondering why there's a line. Two of our friends wish to challenge the Battle Hall."

"Have they been cleared?" The second one asked.

"Cleared?" JJ wondered, tilting his head slightly to the side.

"Yes, cleared. All matches with Argenta must be cleared first. Battles with the Frontier Brain are public events, and so the challengers must apply to challenge her."

"Great. How may they do that?" Fay asked.

"Tell them to come over here, and we can show them to the application center." The first one replied. Fay and JJ nodded before turning around and walking back to Niko, Lauren, and Brittany, who had not moved even a step in the line. They both related their conversation with the guards to the other three.

"Why the hell do we have to apply for this?" Niko asked. "We've never had to apply for any gym battle before! Plus, none of them have been open to the public!"

"Well, no one said the Battle Frontier was like gyms." Lauren commented. "Plus, we have to register for Pokémon Leagues. This is just the same thing."

"I know, but still…" Niko said with a frown. "Alright, let's go Lauren." He said, leaving the line and motioning his girlfriend to follow him. Fay and JJ exchanged spots with the couple, who walked off towards the front of the line.

JJ chuckled a little. "Niko really isn't happy, is he?" Fay and Brittany both shook their heads in response. "He shouldn't be, though."

"Agreed. There are probably a lot of other things on his mind right now that he can't quite organize." Brittany added. "Hopefully Lauren sets him straight a little."

"It's not really a matter of 'setting him straight,' though." Fay said. "More like…she needs to encourage him to open up. If there is something going on, then no one can force him to talk about it. He needs to readily say it."

"That's what I was getting at." Brittany said in a soothing tone. "She can hopefully encourage him to. I think, out of all of us, she can."

"Really? Not you? Or JJ?" Fay said. "He's travelled with you two the longest. You both know him better than anyone, besides his family and maybe me."

"Well, I think that's why he wouldn't. Despite how close we all are, we haven't really made ourselves vulnerable to one another. I think Niko and Lauren are on the cusp of that, in a way that Niko and I aren't, or Niko and JJ aren't." Brittany said. It was clear to JJ and Fay that she had given this more thought than anyone, even Niko himself.

Meanwhile, Niko and Lauren approached the security guards about applying to challenge Argenta, the Frontier Brain, and the two readily directed the couple towards a backroom entrance, where another pair of security guards asked for clearance. Both Niko and Lauren showed their badges cases, as it was the only proof they had so far (since neither of them had earned any prints in the Battle Frontier). Luckily, the guards accepted this after looking up both of their names in some sort of database, ultimately discovering that they had both participated in the Lily of the Valley Conference, as well as their individual placements. Then the two allowed Niko and Lauren to continue on into another room down the hall, where they sat and waited for someone—anyone—to show up.

"Well, this has been easy so far." Niko commented as they sat waiting. "Wonder what else we'll have to do."

"They've done all of the background checks they needed to. What else would they need to see? We've shown them our badges cases, they looked up our participation in a Pokémon League—and probably discovered your involvement in four of them—what else is there?"

"No idea. But you never know. I mean, we didn't even know we _had_ to apply for something like this. Usually we can just show up and battle."

"Yeah. It is a public event, though. That might change things. Hopefully we can get in for today."

"Hopefully so." Niko shook his head. "This is all so weird to me." Lauren nodded in agreement, leaning over to rest on his shoulders.

"Are-are you alright?" Lauren finally asked.

"Yes. What do you mean?"

"You've just been quiet recently, and I don't know why."

"Oh, yeah. I've just been thinking a lot. About this, about my pokémon, and rampardos."

"Rampardos is going to be fine. Your pokémon are fine. And you are a great trainer. What more is there?"

"I…I don't know." Niko said softly. "I'd rather not talk about it."

"Please talk about it." Lauren said. Niko shook his head in response. "Why not?"

"Because I don't want to. And I'm not changing my mind until I can better explain my thoughts!" Niko said, briefly raising his voice.

"That's all you had to say…" Lauren said, sitting back up and moving a little away from her boyfriend. She seemed offended by the remark, and didn't say anything else until a woman in glasses and business attire entered the room.

"Hello there. I've heard you both wish to challenge the Hall Matron Argenta?" She said in a soft, polite tone." Niko and Lauren both nodded. "Well, my name is Lillian. I'm her personal assistant, and after the guards showed me your records, I passed them both on to Argenta herself, and she is certainly interested in taking up your individual challenges. But we've got a busy schedule tonight. As you may or may not know, the Battle Hall is only open once every couple of weeks, and so we often get several challengers. Some are here simply for the glory of it, and others are here for the Hall Print. I assume you're here for the latter?"

Once again, Niko and Lauren both nodded. Lillian motioned them to stand up, and continued speaking as they walked out of the room and further down the hall.

"Argenta has a soft spot for challengers looking for the Hall Prints. She also appreciates trainers from other regions of the world. I noticed you're from Kanto, right Niko?"

"Yes, I am." Niko said in a diplomatic tone.

"Right. You've also participated in four Pokémon Leagues. Yes, she was most impressed by it, especially the consistency in your placements in each. It's not often trainers can make it to the quarterfinals in so many different regional leagues."

"I wouldn't say that's impressive at all." Niko argued back.

"Well, if the Hall Matron thinks it is, then I would consider that quite the compliment. Argenta gets a lot of challengers, but rarely do they beat her. The Battle Hall is…well, different from the other facilities."

"How so?" Lauren asked.

"You'll see." Lillian said, and opened another door at the end of the hall. Sitting in the room at a lit vanity, akin to the kind actors and other celebrities use, was a woman in her mid-40s with short purple hair and red-rimmed sunglasses sitting atop her head. Niko had no idea what kind of clothes she was wearing, other than that they were light burgundy shorts and top with a white undershirt. She wore purple leggings with long, heeled black boots that covered up most of the leggings. Lastly, she wore long hooped earrings. Upon Niko and Lauren entering the room, Argenta turned around in her chair to look upon her challengers, and stood up.

"Ah, you must be the challengers Lillian told me about. Hello, I am Argenta." She said in an unfamiliar tone. "I am the Hall Matron, and Frontier Brain for the Battle Hall. I'm told that you both want to battle me for the Hall Print?" Niko and Lauren nodded. "Excellent! I look forward to battling both of you. Are you both aware of how the Battle Hall operates?" Now the couple shook their heads. "Very well.

"The Battle Hall is a mixture of what you might see in the Battle Factory and the Battle Tower. What I mean by this is when you challenge me, or anyone else here in the Battle Hall, the pokémon we use is at random, and they are all rentals for us. But for you—the challenger—they are not. So, when you both challenge me, I will be using rental pokémon of my own, and they will be chosen at random from a pool of possible choices. I will not know which ones I have chosen, but I have raised and used all of them at one point or another, so I am not caught off guard. You may use whatever pokémon you please, and if you can beat me, then you earn the Hall Print. Does this make sense?"

"Yes." Niko said.

"Yep." Lauren said.

"Excellent. Now, I prefer double battles for those challenging me for the Hall Print, but I am flexible in conducting a single battle. Do you have any particular preference?"

"Double battles." Both of them said. Argenta smirked.

"Very well. I have some other challengers to get through, since you both applied at the last minute. You will both be my final opponents tonight. Lillian will give you the time to come back here. The guards will know to let you in. You may also use the backroom if you wish to change into something else, or as a place to rest and relax before the battles. I wish you the best of luck."

Lillian then showed them both out of the door and gave them further instructions for their battles. After, Niko and Lauren decided to head to the Battle Hall lobby and have an early dinner together before their match. There, they discussed their thoughts on Argenta and the battling style of the Battle Hall. Lauren was intrigued with Argenta, and found her very charming, but was unsure about the way the battles would be conducted. Niko had to agree with her on the charm of the Hall Matron, but wasn't fazed as much by the style.

"We didn't know what pokémon Palmer was using. And generally, we don't know the pokémon we're facing in the Pokémon League, so how is this any different?"

"Well, with Palmer I knew what to expect. Since I'll probably go first here, you won't get that opportunity to strategize while I battle her. You're going in just as blind as I am."

"But that's not a bad thing, Lauren!" Niko protested. "Again, we do this all the time anyways!"

"Why are you yelling…?" Lauren asked, sinking back a little in her chair across from Niko, who looked bemused.

"I wasn't trying to yell at you. Why would you think that?"

"Because you raised your voice. You never do that."

"Again, I wasn't trying to…" He sighed. "Whatever. Either way, I think we'll pull this off. We always do."

"Except against Palmer. We both lost."

"But we're going to beat him next him! I promise you that." Niko said with a smile.

"Right. You're right. We will beat him. Both of us. We just have to put in the time."

"And we've got the time here! It's not like in Sinnoh, where we had a deadline to meet if we wanted to compete in the Sinnoh League!" Niko said. Lauren nodded in agreement, this time with a smile. It was the first time Niko saw her smile all day, which he found odd. Usually she was more cheerful. He wanted to know why today was any different, but chose not to press the issue, out of fear that he might stress her out and, in turn, stress himself out.

For the next couple of hours, they watched battles from a monitor in the dining hall before walking back into the backroom that Argenta mentioned and Lillian showed them. They then waited in anticipation until the host—a man named Austin—announced two last-minute challengers, in reference to the couple.

"And now, please give a round of applause for our next challenger. She hails from Canalave City in Sinnoh, but was born and raised in the Johto region. She recently just placed in the Top 16 in the Lily of the Valley Conference, and is looking to challenge each of the Frontier Brains here on Battle Island. Please welcome Lauren!"

The short, blue-haired woman walked onto the stage in her fitting black jeans and blue and white-striped t-shirt. She briefly covered her eyes as she looked up at the massive, bright lights staring down from above, easily illuminating the stage and the rest of the stadium. Directly in front of her was Argenta, who wore a smirk on her face.

"I'm glad you're here, Lauren. I want to see the very best that your pokémon have got." She then nodded to Austin, who acted as referee for the match. He explained the rules of the match—double battle, and the winner is declared when both of their opponent's pokémon are defeated—and motioned for Argenta and Lauren to begin. "Metagross, lickylicky, I choose you!" She shouted, throwing out two pokéballs.

Lauren nodded at the choices before choosing her own. "Infernape, slowking, let's go!" She said, throwing two pokéballs out, one from each hand, and summoning the flame and royal pokémon. "Flame wheel on metagross, and water pulse on lickylicky!"

In the stands, Brittany, JJ, and Fay were just as surprised to see Lauren out there as anyone else. After the couple left to apply for a match, the three hadn't seen them the entire afternoon. After a while, they all correctly assumed that the two had been accepted, and sat and watched the matches. Fay in particular was excited to see some of the battles before Lauren's, as he hardly got to see them with the demands of his jobs. JJ, on the other hand, was getting impatient with all of it.

"Metagross, zen headbutt. Lickylicky, thunderpunch the water pulse!" Argenta commanded. Metagross' head began to glow bright blue as it slammed down on the flame wheel containing infernape, knocking the monkey backwards and rendering her attack ineffective. Lickylicky, on its part, exploded the water pulse in a shimmering explosion of electricity and water before charging towards slowking with another thunderpunch.

Lauren grit her teeth. It was going to be a tough match.


	6. On the stage! (Part 2)

**Episode 6: On the stage! (Part 2)**

Lauren grit her teeth. Infernape just took a powerful hit from metagross' zen headbutt, and slowking barely evaded an unusually fast thunderpunch from lickylicky. She then commanded slowking use zen headbutt on lickylicky, and infernape to use flare blitz on metagross.

"Bullet punch!" Argenta commanded. The iron leg pokémon raised its leg into the air and thrusted it towards infernape, who quickly moved out of the way and slammed into the steel "x" on metagross' face. Infernape then leapt on top of metagross and, on Lauren's command, jumped into the air, burst into a flame wheel, and landed down on the iron leg pokémon before taking a zen headbutt to the chest, launching her into the air and across the stage before landing in the center.

Meanwhile, slowking rammed into lickylicky's rotund body with blue sparks crackling along his horned shell. The licking pokémon, in response, leapt into the air and proceeded to crash down upon the royal pokémon, pressing onto slowking with its spherical body. Lickylicky then got off of slowking and prepared to thunderpunch the water type when it took a water pulse directly to the face. Slowking walked backwards to observe the damage done, only to see an electrified yellow fist hurdling towards him.

"Zen headbutt!" Lauren shouted. Slowking lowered his head once more before charging at lickylicky, once again slamming into the normal type. Argenta then tried to repeat her previous strategy with body slam. However, this time slowking was prepared and, on Lauren's command, spun around and launched a water pulse at lickylicky while it was still in the air. The licking pokémon still landed on slowking, but it also took damage, unlike the previous time.

Getting off of slowking, lickylicky didn't immediately attack. Rather, it waited for its opponent to also get up. Argenta smirked.

"Lickylicky appreciates a good challenge, Lauren. Your slowking is something special."

"You got that right. Slowking, use swagger!" She then turned to infernape, who had tried another flame wheel on metagross, only to meet the same result. "Hmph. Infernape, use close combat!"

"Bullet punch again!" Argenta commanded. The two pokémon collided once more, this time with infernape launching a merciless number of punches and kicks at the iron leg pokémon. It didn't seem to matter how many times she hit: metagross wasn't giving up. "Now, finish infernape off with meteor mash!" Argenta cried out, thrusting a hand forward.

Metagross' hand began to glow white with the silhouette of a meteor appearing in the center. It then punched infernape in the chest, launching the flame pokémon across the stage at a frighteningly fast pace. Infernape collapsed on a wall next to the stands before crumbling to the ground.

"Infernape!" Lauren shouted, turning her attention to the monkey slowly getting back up. She ran down the steps of the stage to help her pokémon up. "Can you keep going? If you're done, that's fine. I get it. We can try again next time."

Infernape looked at Lauren with two fiercely determined eyes. She then nodded, and let go of Lauren before jumping up the stairs and back onto the stage to face metagross. In that moment, the entire stadium was fixated on infernape—even lickylicky and slowking.

Then, unexpectedly, infernape began to glow bright red and orange, as if she was using flare blitz. Only she wasn't. In the stands Fay, Brittany, and JJ immediately recognized it to be infernape's blaze ability.

Infernape turned to Lauren and nodded before another aura appeared around the flame pokémon. This time, Lauren truly understood what was happening, but couldn't believe it. Nodding, she issued her command.

"Infernape, BLAST BURN!" She cried out. Infernape then struck the ground with her right fist, and a wave flowed underneath the stage before erupting under metagross, sending the iron leg pokémon high into the air. "Now, flare blitz!"

The fire monkey enveloped herself in flames before bursting forward, slamming into metagross just as it was about to crash back into the ground. In the aftermath of the collision, infernape grabbed onto metagross' front left leg for support, but was still able to stand up.

"Oh my…" Brittany said, cupping her mouth with her hands. "She did it. Fay…she did it."

"That she did. Guess our explanation made sense to her. Kudos." He said with a satisfied smile.

Niko sat in the backroom watching. He was through the roof in excitement, and hair on his arms and legs were standing straight up. But he couldn't help but feel as if he was now very much behind Lauren, since infernape had only just learned about blast burn that very morning, and venusaur has had an extra day to practice frenzy plant.

"Metagross is unable to battle, infernape and slowking win!" Austin announced. Argenta and Lauren immediately turned their attention back to lickylicky and slowking, who had paused their battle to watch their partners.

"Zen headbutt!" Lauren shouted.

"Body slam!" Argenta commanded. Both pokémon struck once more, but this time Lauren had an asset that she could count on. Even though she was exhausted, infernape burst forward with a mach punch to lickylicky's side, knocking the normal type off of its balance for slowking to finish with zen headbutt, effectively defeating the licking pokémon.

"Lickylicky is unable to battle, infernape and slowking are the winners! And the victory goes to Lauren from Canalave City!" Austin announced amid cheering from the crowd.

Argenta returned lickylicky, looking pleased. She then approached Lauren, infernape, and slowking with a small gold print of the Battle Hall in her hand. "I must say, I'm very impressed with your pokémon. I can tell from your reaction to blast burn that that was the first time you've used it, no?"

"It was. And I'm very happy with infernape." Lauren said, patting the exhausted monkey on the shoulder.

"As you should be for all of your pokémon. Now, here: the Hall Print that you have rightly earned. I take it that it's your first?" Lauren nodded. "Well, I'm honored to have been the first Frontier Brain that you've defeated. Congratulations."

"Thank you, Argenta. It was a great battle." Lauren said, bowing before returning slowking and infernape and exiting the stage. Argenta then bowed to the crowd and also exited the stage to prepare for her upcoming battle with Niko.

In the backroom, Niko ran up to Lauren and brought her into a hug, picking her up a little as he did so. "I'm so proud of you and infernape. You mastered blast burn in a single battle. I can't even do that!" Niko said before kissing her.

"Thanks. I'm really awestruck myself. I didn't expect it."

"Well, it looked like you did, and it looked amazing!" Niko said with excitement in his tone, which convinced Lauren that he wasn't feeling anything but satisfaction for her win. "And you got your first print!" He said, opening Lauren's small hand to reveal the Hall Print.

"Yes! And soon you'll have one, too!" She said before pointing up to the monitor. "Speaking of which, I think you're up." She said with a wink. "I'll be right here when you win, alright?"

"Got it." Niko said before turning towards the hall that led to the main stage. As he started walking, he could hear Austin announcing his name.

"Aaand for our last battle of the evening, we've got quite the show for you all! He's from Pallet Town in Kanto, and has participated in _four_ —count them, _four_ —Pokémon Leagues, reaching Top 8 in three of them! Please give a round of applause for Niko!" Austin shouted, throwing his hand towards Niko's end. As soon as he stepped onto the stage, he too felt blinded by the bright lights and could hear the cheering of so many strangers. He then looked ahead of him to see Argenta standing there with a smile written on her face.

Austin then explained the same rules of the match as he had done with Lauren, and allowed the match to begin.

"Bellossom, blissey, I choose you!" Argenta shouted. Seeing his opponents, Niko fiddled around with his six pokéballs before choosing the two he thought would work best.

"Glalie, prinplup! Let's win this!" Niko shouted, summoning the face and penguin pokémon. "Ice beam on bellossom, drill peck on blissey!"

"Bellossom, dodge and use stun spore! Blissey, fire blast on glalie!" Argenta commanded. The flower pokémon shook its body and yellow spores emitted from it, spreading across the field and nearly stunning prinplup and glalie. Meanwhile, the face pokémon blocked both the stun spore and fire blast with a quickly conjured protect.

"Glalie, use ice beam on blissey! Prinplup, drill peck on bellossom!" Niko shouted. He couldn't afford not to go on offense. He had faith that his pokémon were strong enough to win. It was going to come down to his strategy.

Prinplup rushed forward to hit the grass type, his glowing white beak extending half of a foot outwards. However, bellossom conjured a green blade out of thin air and slashed at prinplup, parrying the drill peck and holding prinplup off. The penguin then attempted to use metal claw and found himself engaging in close combat with the flower pokémon for nearly a minute, neither willing to give in.

"Stun spore!" Argenta shouted. Bellossom shook its body, letting go of its stalemate with prinplup and subsequently stunned the penguin. "Now, leaf storm!"

"Ice beam!" Niko shouted. Just as bellossom unleashed a hurricane of leaves at its opponent, the grass type felt a stream of ice crash into it, knocking it over. "Now crunch! Prinplup, get out of there!" Niko continued. Glalie charged towards bellossom and landed his teeth on top of the flower pokémon and shot out another ice beam to defeat it.

"Bellossom is unable to battle, glalie and prinplup are the winners!" Austin declared. Niko sighed a breath of relief—all was going well.

"Alright glalie, now use ice be—protect, now!" Niko shouted, as a now angry blissey breathed out a massive five-pointed burst of fire at the face pokémon. Fortunately, glalie was able to block the attack, but Niko needed prinplup to move again—and he wasn't.

"Blissey, minimize!" Argenta shouted. The happiness pokémon began to shrink progressively, and it became harder for Niko, glalie, and now prinplup to see blissey. He then commanded glalie to use ice beam which the happiness pokémon successfully dodged. Then, prinplup attacked with bubblebeam, and ordered the penguin to follow blissey with bubblebeam.

Then he got an idea.

"Glalie, ice beam the stage floor!" Niko directed. The face pokémon opened his mouth and shot out a stream of ice that turned the stage into an ice rink. He nodded, acknowledging glalie's good work, but had to quickly command him to use protect to block another fire blast.

This time, it was not successful, and glalie took a powerful hit from fire blast, the heat of the attack melting some of the ice in its wake. Glalie spun out of control and crashed onto the edge of the stage, unable to get back up.

"Glalie is unable to battle, blissey is the winner!" Austin shouted.

"Alright prinplup, it's you and me now. Are you ready?" Niko asked. The penguin turned to his trainer and nodded. "Excellent. Let's keep this up. Use bubblebeam on the floor!" He commanded. Prinplup then shout out yet another stream of bubbles that wet the floor around blissey. "Now. Drill peck!" He shouted. Prinplup slid forward, being completely comfortable on the now icy floor. He rushed at blissey and successfully landed his attack on the happiness pokémon, knocking it onto its back and causing it to slide backwards across the field. "Now, metal claw!"

Prinplup's claws began to extend and glow a bright gray color as he jumped onto his belly and slid across the ice field and slashed at blissey again before stopping with his metallic fingers and jumping back onto his feet. Niko then went in for the final move. _Checkmate_.

"Water pulse!" He commanded. Prinplup raised his flippers into the air and slammed it onto his opponent.

"Softboiled." Argenta commanded plainly. Blissey conjured an egg from its pouch and tossed it into the air, and when it landed back down on the happiness pokémon, she began to glow. "Healed up. Now, return!"

Blissey began to glow a bright white as she jumped back up and attempted to crash into prinplup. However, because of the slippery field, blissey crashed face-forward into the ground, giving Niko and prinplup the opportunity they needed. "Finish blissey off with water pulse!"

Prinplup conjured a glowing, pulsating orb of water and brought it down on blissey's head, bursting upon contact and defeating the happiness pokémon.

"Blissey is unable to battle, prinplup wins! The victory goes to Niko from Pallet Town!" Austin declared. Prinplup immediately turned around and slide over towards Niko excitedly, leaping off of his feet and into Niko's arms.

"We did it! Great job, prinplup!" Niko said happily before putting prinplup down and looking up at Argenta who, due to the stage now looking like an ice rink and the fact that she was wearing heels, motioned for Niko to step down from the stage into the space between the stage and the stands.

"Niko, excellent battle. I particularly appreciated your use of the ice field to get around minimize. Kudos to you. Here," She held out a gold symbol bearing the Battle Hall on it. "This is your first print. I wish you the best of luck. Also, the closest facility to here would be the Battle Factory. It's at the base of Stark Mountain. That, I believe, will be a challenge for you and Lauren. The Frontier Brain, Thornton, is…well, he's an interesting young man."

"Thank you for the battle, Argenta. I'm glad to finally win a print!" Niko said, looking down at the gold print sitting in his hand. Argenta nodded and placed her hand on his shoulder.

"Keep your head up, too. Becoming a skilled pokémon trainer is not an easy path. As a Frontier Brain, I can tell you that for certain. As long as you keep a steady mindset, and put the upmost trust in your pokémon, then you'll do just fine."

Niko nodded. He appreciated hearing it, and from a Frontier Brain of all people. He walked into the backroom to see Lauren sitting down with a big smile on her face. Upon seeing her boyfriend, she jumped up and ran towards Niko to hug him. They held one another for nearly a minute before letting go.

"First prints." Niko said, holding his gold Hall Print. Lauren smirked as she pulled her own from her pocket. "Also, the next place to go is the Battle Factory at the base of Stark Mountain, wherever that is."

* * *

Niko and Lauren joined their friends in the lobby of the Battle Hall, walking through a crowd of impressed Battle Hall fans.

"Congrats guys," Fay said. "Both of you…really incredible battles. Lauren, great job on blast burn!"

"Thanks, Fay!" Lauren said, walking up and hugging the pokémon researcher. Niko slightly frowned, but turned away so that no one else would see it. "I'm really glad infernape figured it out. We might not have won without it!"

"Well, just keep practicing. That's what charizard and I are doing." Fay said before turning to Niko. "And that ice field…wow, that was neat." Niko smiled and nodded his head in agreement.

"It just came to me out of nowhere. I might not have won without it either."

"Well, I'm glad you both got the print. Four more, right?" Niko and Lauren both nodded. "Great. Well, where's the next one?" Niko and Lauren explained what Argenta said to Niko. "Stark Mountain? Oh! Yeah, I actually have to go there next."

"Want to join us then?" Brittany asked. Niko, JJ, and Lauren all agreed.

"Yeah, let's do it. Want to leave in the morning?" The group all nodded. "Great, see you all tomorrow, then."

Fay then turned to leave the Battle Hall, and the group then stood in the lobby and talked for some time before leaving the facility, with one print in hand, and four to go.


	7. Spitfire

**Episode 7: Spitfire**

"Ready?" Niko asked his friends as they met Fay at the Pokémon Center. They all nodded, affirming that their journey to Stark Mountain—and the Battle Factory—was to begin.

Niko felt in a better mood that morning—it was a moderate temperature, the world around him was beautiful, and he and Lauren had just earned their first print in the Battle Frontier. It was the Hall Print, given to them by Argenta, the Hall Matron. Now, they were off to earn their second—the Factory Print.

JJ, with Fay's assistance, figured that the road to Stark Mountain would take under a week, mostly because the terrain looked less than friendly. Made sense, since Stark Mountain was a supposedly dormant volcano.

The first day on the road was one of the harder treks the group has had to make. Route 226 led them along sheer cliffs that seemed to go on for miles. It reminded most of the group of their trip around Mt. Mortar in Johto, where Niko's hoothoot evolved. Due to the precarious environment around them, neither Niko nor Lauren trained, and they had to wait until they found a sizeable spot on the side of the mountain range where they could feed their pokémon. Even then, the space wasn't large enough for the teams of all five trainers, and so they took turns.

That night, Niko and Fay sat outside the small cave that the group had found earlier that evening. For a while, the two talked about their respective adventures—Niko in Sinnoh, Fay with his job. It was then that Niko learned about the extent of Fay's travels—he's been to regions Niko hadn't even heard of, and researched pokémon of all different shapes, sizes, and types. Apparently, there was a classification for the fairy type, and JJ's togetic was one of them. Fay explained that since Professor Rowan had not yet updated the Sinnoh pokédex—after _years_ —to include the fairy type, togetic's pokédex entry classified her as a normal and flying, not fairy and flying.

Niko found himself fascinated by all of the knowledge Fay had accrued over the past two years since leaving their group, and wondered if he would ever be able to see some of the things Fay has. If he wanted to be a "pokémon master," then he would certainly have to.

It was then Niko's turn to share. He gave his friend a long account of their journeys in Sinnoh, including meeting Lauren; the Hearthome Tag Tournament; Hunter; the various contests and gyms they all competed in; the stories of how they obtained their pokémon; meeting Elite 4 members Aaron and Flint; the crisis at Mt. Coronet. From his perspective, Fay was equally impressed, and for a moment wished that he was still travelling with them all.

"What's next for you, then?" Fay asked when Niko finished. "I mean, once you've beaten all of these battle facilities?"

Niko shrugged. "Probably head back to Pallet Town with these three and laze around until we decided where to go next, just like we always do."

"Is that all you want to do until you have seen the entire world?" Fay inquired.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I mean that you just go back home, sit around for a summer, and then journey off again. Don't get me wrong—it's amazing. But have you thought yet about _what_ you want to do?"

"You mean as a career?"

Fay nodded.

"Well, I want to be a pokémon master. And I want to see as much of the world as I can. I also know that when I eventually stop travelling, I don't want to live in Pallet Town anymore. I want to live in a bigger city, and in a region that I love. Maybe that's here, or Hoenn, or even Kanto still. But I just haven't gotten that far."

"Fair enough. I was just curious." Fay said as he looked up at the moon shining brightly down on them, its silvery light glazing them.

The following morning, the five trainers got up and continued on their journey. The second day was just as exhausting as the first—with the group having to trek up and down steep trails along the mountain range. Occasionally they would see other trainers towards the top of the mountains, presumably training with flying type pokémon. At one point, Fay saw a dragon trainer flying around on a salamence, the latter breathing jets of blue fire from its maw. Eventually Niko and JJ had to pry him away from the view so they could continue onwards.

On the third day, the group finally made it out of the mountains and descended closer to the ground, where they met the massive body of water that sat in the center of the entire island and extended up northwards to the mountain range that they had just exited.

"So…how are we getting across this?" Lauren asked, motioning towards the water. Smirking, Fay drew out two pokéballs.

"Gyarados, charizard, let's go!" He shouted, summoning two of his pokémon. "I'll fly on charizard, and the rest of you can ride gyarados. Don't worry," He said to a somewhat nervous Lauren. "Gyarados is pretty friendly, and he won't let you fall off. Just ask these three—we travelled with gyarados a lot."

Lauren tensely turned to Niko, who nodded in affirmation. She then walked up to gyarados and gently pet the water dragon before mountain him. JJ, Brittany, and finally Niko all got on while Fay jumped onto charizard, and the five were off. Traversing the water didn't take too long for the five of them. While they were riding on gyarados, Lauren grabbed Niko around the waste, which Niko took for her being scared to death of falling in the water. Smiling softly, he looked back to see her staring at the water cautiously.

Once they got off of gyarados, and Fay landed with charizard, the five of them continued on, with Fay returning his pokémon.

"Now, I guess we go north." Niko said, pointing to the mountain range that was slowly and progressively arching northwards. Fay nodded, and both of them could see a steady stream of smoke erupting dozens of miles off in the distance. "To…that."

"Is that Stark Mountain?" Brittany asked.

Niko nodded affirmatively. "Looks like it. Which means we're close to the Battle Factory. Maybe a day's journey?"

Fay turned to Niko. "Yeah, think you and Lauren will be ready for it?" He asked as they began walking into the jungle in front of them.

"Well, Argenta said that her Battle Hall is a combination of the Battle Tower—which is just an ordinary pokémon battle—and the Battle Factory. Since part of her facility is using random pokémon, I'm thinking that maybe the Battle Factory uses randomly chosen pokémon as well."

Lauren shuddered at the suggestion, meaning it was the first time she was even hearing of it. "I don't like the idea of using random pokémon, honestly."

"Why not?" Niko asked, turning and looking to his right. His blue-haired girlfriend shrugged.

"I've built up strong relationships with all of my pokémon. It would just seem disingenuous to not participate with them."

"I get that." Niko said with a smile. "To be fair, I've never battled with random pokémon, either. It'll be weird for sure."

They continued on for the rest of the day, eventually stopping on the edge of a mountain. Near their camp was a path up the mountain, but it wasn't the way to the Battle Factory, as it moved west instead of north, and so the group largely ignored it when they were setting up camp.

Occasionally, while they were resting from the long walk that day, they would see wild pokémon walk off in the distance. This was a usual occurrence, but hardly anything noteworthy happened. Usually they would watch the pokémon in their natural habitat, and the pokémon would leave them alone, especially when the group was training.

On that day, they watched as numel and camerupt were walking off near the crags in the distance. Niko smiled; the sight made him think of his own numel, and wondered how the numb pokémon was doing. It was his first fire pokémon, and in that moment, he wondered if he would ever catch another one. His experience training numel was not an easy one, to be sure, but Niko did learn something from it—not necessarily on how to train pokémon, but how to deal with different types of pokémon. Numel, he remembered, was not fond of training, but when it came to actual battling, the fire type was always ready to compete. In this mode, he had as much determination to win as any of Niko's other pokémon.

Just then, he saw a jet of fire hit one of the camerupt in the nose—a sensitive part of their body that usually causes them to go into a rage—and out of nowhere came a red and orange pokémon in the shape of flames jump off of a short cliff and land on the angry camerupt. The eruption pokémon started roaring loudly, grabbing the attention of everyone around it.

"Niko, what's going on?" Brittany asked as she got up, pikachu at her side.

"Looks like a…magmar…pissed off a camerupt." Niko said, squinting his eyes to get a better look at the perpetrator. It was indeed a magmar, and a bully at that. He pulled out a pokéball, and then ran off in that direction.

"Niko! What are you doing?" Lauren shouted. "Ugh…" She got up and ran off, slowking running right behind her. "Niko!"

"Hold on, we need to settle this."

"Let them settle it on their own!" Lauren snapped back. Niko spun around, pokéball still in hand.

"Listen…that magmar is clearly a bully. That means someone should stop it, right?"

"Right…but why you?"

"Because I can." Niko said with a wink before turning back around and continuing on. "Prinplup, let's go!"

"Slowking…c'mon." Lauren said, motioning forward. Slowking lumbered onward behind his trainer, trying to think of more diplomatic ways of solving this.

Niko reached the site of the conflict, and watched at camerupt summoned a rock slide to attack magmar. The spitfire pokémon, in retaliation, dodged each rock in turn, leaping over and under them, and occasionally—and magically—throwing _lava_ from its hands to melt others. Niko then looked cautiously at prinplup.

"Be careful, alright buddy?" The penguin nodded without looking back in return. "Alright, use bubblebeam on magmar!"

As if anticipating the attack, magmar dove to the side before fire punching camerupt, again in the nose. This time, the eruption pokémon used the eruption attack, firing off molten rocks from its twin humps. Magmar dodged and dove around each attack before turning to prinplup, its fist on fire. The spitfire pokémon planted a fire punch across prinplup's face, knocking it backwards, but was unable to get the penguin knocked off of his feet.

"Drill peck!" Niko commanded. The penguin's beak enlarged, glowing a bright white. Prinplup then charged forward and nearly struck magmar, who dodged and spun around to kick prinplup in the face, only to meet the penguin's two claws latch onto it. "Throw it down!" Niko then turned to Lauren and slowking. "Can you calm down the camerupt?"

"How!?" Lauren shouted.

"No idea!" Niko responded. "I've never seen this before."

"But you _caught_ one!"

"A numel, not a camerupt!" Niko snapped back. Meanwhile, prinplup and magmar were engaged in a vicious close combat with one another, neither giving any ground. Finally, prinplup knocked magmar back with drill peck. The spitfire pokémon rolled backwards through the air before landing on its feet and shooting out a powerful flamethrower. "Bubblebeam!" Niko said, turning back just in time.

Prinplup shot out a heavy stream of bubbles, which was somehow strong enough to match with magmar's flamethrower. They maintained their attacks for some time before both letting go at the same time.

Magmar glared at prinplup, and only prinplup, watching to see what the penguin would do next. Seeing nothing, the spitfire pokémon nodded to prinplup and Niko, and then turned to run away, jumping up onto small ledges, one at a time, until it got back up to the top of the crags and disappeared behind them.

Meanwhile, Lauren and slowking were attempting to calm down the camerupt. At first, Lauren and slowking tried to use a gentle water pulse, but that was unsuccessful, as it only made the eruption pokémon angrier. Then prinplup tried bubblebeam, and it slowly calmed camerupt down, with slowking adding another water pulse right on the nose to further sooth the burn mark. Afterwards, camerupt turned and left the couple, nodding as it turned and walked away, some numel at its side.

"Well, that was…something…" Niko said, scratching his head.

"Yeah! It was!" Lauren shouted, much to slowking's, prinplup's, and Niko's surprise.

"Why're you so mad?" Niko inquired, genuinely curious.

"We don't have to go around and solve every problem we see! Nature has a way of working these things out."

"But I wanted to, how hard is that to understand?" Niko snapped back. "I know I didn't have to, but I did!"

"Fine. You're right. Let's just go." Lauren said, shrugging and turning back towards the camp. That evening, Niko and Lauren described their small adventure to the other three, who all looked interested, and slightly regretted not joining in.

"No worries. We had it covered. But, man…that magmar was something else."

"Then why didn't you catch it?" JJ asked, drinking from his soda.

"Didn't cross my mind. Plus, I already have six pokémon with me. What happens if I catch a seventh? Am I even allowed to?"

"Of course you are." Fay response. "You just can't use it, unless you don't want to use another one from your other six. Make sense?"

"Yeah, I get what you're saying. Well, it's too late anyways. That magmar is probably long gone."

The group continued talking about their journey to the Battle Factory. Since they figured the facility was require them to use rental pokémon, Niko and Lauren both settled on looking to challenge the Frontier Brain as soon as they could which, by their estimates, would be in the afternoon of the following day, as they were relatively close to Stark Mountain at this point.

An hour later everyone had gone off to bed. Niko stayed up, watching the palm trees rustle in the light wind that nature was providing. For being so close to a volcano, the air was oddly crisp, although he could still see ash falling off in the distance, over near the crags that magmar appeared from.

"Wait a minute…" Niko said, squinting into the darkness. There, atop the crags, was magmar. The spitfire pokémon was standing and looking off towards the forest that Niko was admiring moments previous. Then magmar and Niko made eye contact, and the fire type leapt off of the crags and onto the ground with unusual grace. In a panic, Niko quickly scrambled to grab a pokéball and waking Lauren and Fay up in the process.

"Niko…what the hell…" Lauren said, rubbing her eyes just as a jet of fire soared a dozen feet above her. "WHAT THE HELL NIKO!?"

"Prinplup, drill peck!" Niko shouted, now standing up. The penguin erupted out of his pokéball and charged at magmar, his beak half a foot long and glowing white. Magmar collided with a fire punch, and the two quickly exchanged blows, just as they did earlier on.

"Niko…geez." Lauren said, getting up and gently grabbing his arm. "Why so late?"

"I was up and we locked eyes and then it just attacked me…" Niko explained. "Bubblebeam!"

"Are you going to catch it?" Fay asked, turning to Niko. The brown-haired trainer responded with a smirk, and an empty pokéball in his hand. "Nice. Good luck."

"Thanks. Prinplup, water pulse!"

After dodging a flamethrower, prinplup conjured a glowing orb of water and slammed it down on magmar. The spitfire pokémon stumbled briefly, giving Niko the chance he needed. He threw the pokéball at magmar, and a shining red light enveloped it before sending it into the ball.

The pokéball fell to the ground, wiggled a few times, and then clicked. Niko caught magmar.

He walked over to pick up the pokéball, and then looked at prinplup as the ball clicked red, presumably indicating that he couldn't use it.

"Well, guess we have to wait until we get to the Battle Factory to properly introduce you to everyone, magmar. But, if you can hear this, welcome to the team, buddy. I'm Niko." He looked up at Fay and Lauren. "Now, let's get back to bed."

The two trainers nodded, the girl yawning loudly as they walked back to camp, only to find Brittany and JJ now awake as well. All Niko did was hold out a pokéball, indicating his newest catch, for the other two to nod and immediately fall back to sleep. Lauren and Fay quickly did minutes later. Niko went to sleep last, staring up at the stars above.

* * *

 **Author's Note: I've always liked magmar personally, and wanted Niko to get one as early as Kanto in the first season. However, I had a team planned out for Niko back then, and didn't feel like giving him 7 pokemon at the very start of his journey. Plus, i'm pleased with how I wrote Niko catching his first fire type, and I don't think his character could have handled a magmar so early in his journey. Given this, I feel like this season was the prime opportunity to give him one-his second-and make it a little more powerful than usual. I hope you enjoyed how I wrote it all. Enjoy!**


	8. The rental rumble!

**Episode 8: The rental rumble!**

"There it is…the Battle Factory." Niko said as he threw an arm around Lauren and looked on ahead. In front of them, roughly fifty yards ahead, stood a massive structure in the shape of the top half of a hexagon. There were two larger plates—also in the shape of a half-hexagon—attached on each side, with what looked like fans extending out of the bottom. A conveyor belt lay at the base of a tunnel that presumably took challenger inside, into the facility. "You ready?" He asked his girlfriend.

"Mhmm. Ready when you are." She said with a smile. Niko nodded, and the five walked in.

The inside of the Battle Factory was far more impressive than the outside was. Inside, stainless steel covered the walls and floor. Conveyor belts were littered all around the main room, usually leading to elevators that would take visitors to a litany of unknown destinations. Niko and his friends approached the desk in the center of the room. A young woman sat at it, presumably the receptionist.

"Hello, how may I help you?" She asked in a polite, yet oddly cold, tone.

"My name's Niko, and Lauren and I would like to challenge the Frontier Brain here." He said. The woman nodded, spinning around in her chair to grab two small devices.

"Please enter your information on these. The Factory Head will review the application and get back to you as soon as possible."

"Thank you." Niko said, nodding and walking with his friends towards a nearby steel bench. Sitting down, he typed the answers to his facility application, as did Lauren. While they did that, Fay and JJ took a look around the main room of the factory, while Brittany sat there reading a book she picked up in the Fight Area ("A History of Pokémon Coordinating").

As soon as Niko finished, he took Lauren's finished application and returned the devices to the woman at the front desk before turning to look for a pokémon transfer machine; the one he had used to transfer venusaur and glalie over to the Fight Area from Pallet Town. After a minute of searching around, he found one in the corner of the room. He walked over, turned it on, and pulled out one of his pokéballs—luxray's, to be exact, and turned on the video calling function.

"Hello?" Niko said into the machine. Suddenly, his parents both appeared on the screen.

"Niko! What's going on? Where are you?" His Mom asked with a mix of curiosity and caution.

"The Battle Factory. Listen, I'm sending luxray to you guys. I just caught a new pokémon last night, and since I already have a full team, I can't use the new one. Do you mind taking in another one?"

"Oh, no worries son!" Dad said with a smile. "We'd be happy to take luxray off of your hands. Going in to another Battle Frontier thing?"

"Yeah, my third one—the Battle Factory. I think we can only use rental pokémon for it, but just in case, I'd like to be able to use my new pokémon. Thank you!"

"Anytime, son. Bye, love you!" Mom said.

"Love you too, Mom. Bye!" Niko said before turning off the machine and pulling out magmar's pokéball. The ball was no longer red, but instead its regular red and white colors. "Alright, now I can use you, buddy. But only if I have to right now."

As he spun around, he saw a short young man standing in one of the elevators. It opened, and the young man turned to Niko with a cold stare. He had dark gray hair that was combed up and to his left. He wore a black vest with a silver tie and a long-sleeved white dress shirt underneath. He had forest green shorts that fell below his knees and a pouch on his belt that held two of the same devices Niko and Lauren typed on. To complete his odd look, he had a light green cap on the back of his head.

"You must be Niko. Welcome to the Battle Factory." He said with a tone as equally cold as his expression. "Where is Lauren as well?"

Lauren turned from reading Brittany's book to see the man staring at her. "Here!" She said cheerfully, waving her hands.

"Excellent. Both of you, come with me." He said. Just as Fay, JJ, and Brittany began to follow, he held out his hand. "Only the challengers may follow. Beth will escort you to the stadium."

The lady at the front desk then got out of her chair and motioned for the other three to follow her while Niko and Lauren followed the short man. They all fit into the escalator, which took them deep into the factory. After half a minute, they stopped, and the man walked out into a massive room filled with pokéballs.

"The Battle Factory uses rental pokémon. To challenge the Factory Head, you must choose three rental pokémon. If you want, you may also choose them at random." He explained. "Also, you'll find the list of attacks of each pokémon on a card under their pokéball."

"How long do we have?" Niko asked.

"As long as you please." He said, nodding before turning and walking away.

Niko turned to Lauren and shrugged. "Guess we just choose three each, right?" Lauren nodded, and then turned to look for some pokémon. Niko did the same, only he chose pokémon at random. After a few minutes, the couple met back up at the start, where the young man was waiting for them.

"Have you chosen your three pokémon?" He asked. Niko and Lauren both nodded. "Very well. Now, let us go to the stadium. It's time for your frontier challenge." He led them back into the elevator. This time, they didn't go all the way up. Instead, they only went halfway up towards the main lobby, arriving instead at a giant stadium, complete with stands and a battlefield. The young man got off first and, when Niko and Lauren did the same, turned to face them. "You will now challenge me. My name is Thorton, and I am the Factory Head."

Niko and Lauren, slightly shocked at the revelation that this young adult was in fact a Frontier Brain, both nodded. Niko then stepped forward and took the first battle. Meanwhile, Lauren found her way into the stands, where she sat with Fay, JJ, and Brittany.

Thorton and Niko took opposite ends of the field and, once the referee explained the rules of the battle, they began.

"Sudowoodo, you're up!" Thorton shouted.

"Err…toxicroak, let's go!" Niko commanded. He tried to remember what toxicroak's move card said. "Use cross chop!"

"Block with rock slide." Thorton declared. The rock type conjured dozens of rocks, each varying in size, and hurled them at toxicroak, who slashed and chopped at each one before running at sudowoodo and landing a well-placed cross chop on the top of the head. Sudowoodo backed up a little before charging forward, its arm glowing bright white. Sudowoodo then raised it with great difficulty and slammed it down on top of toxicroak, who cried out and retaliated with poison jab.

It was almost as if Niko didn't have to issue any commands. The toxicroak was fighting sudowoodo perfectly fine on its own. But Niko still wanted to partake in the fight. "Use nasty plot, and then sludge bomb!"

Toxicroak smirked, looking up at sudowoodo. It then opened its mouth and unleashed a flurry of inky black spheres at sudowoodo, hitting the tree in the chest and knocking it off of its feet. Niko then commanded toxicroak to use cross chop. The poison mouth pokémon leapt into the air with incredible strength—similar to Hunter's toxicroak—and slammed down its hands, which were glowing white, onto a now poisoned sudowoodo.

"Sudowoodo is unable to battle, toxicroak is the winner! Factory Head Thorton will now send out his second pokémon!"

"Wigglytuff, let's go!" Thorton shouted. "Use hyper voice!"

The balloon pokémon leapt out of its pokéball and immediately screamed out at an ear-shattering pitch. Niko, toxicroak, and Thorton all covered their ears from the sound, but the poison mouth pokémon was the most affected by it.

"Toxicroak…poison jab!" Niko said, trying to regain his hearing. Toxicroak, now on its knees, slowly got up and ran at wigglytuff, who leapt into the air and slammed down on an unsuspecting toxicroak, knocking the poison type to the ground.

"Wake-up slap!" Thorton commanded. Wigglytuff then grabbed toxicroak and began slapping the poison type's face back and forth before throwing it to the side. "Hyper voice again!"

"Cross chop!" Niko commanded, but it was too late; wigglytuff was already bellowing out at an unsafe decibel. But then Niko saw toxicroak get back up, shaking its head. It's hands both glowing, toxicroak charged forward and slashed in wigglytuff's face in an "x-like" fashion, launching the balloon pokémon across the field. "Now, sludge bomb!" Niko shouted, thrusting a fist forward.

Toxicroak opened his mouth again and unleashed a flurry of black spheres, which wigglytuff repelled with hyper voice followed by a gyro ball. Niko commanded toxicroak to dodge and use poison jab. The poison type nodded, leaping over the spinning gray sphere and landing a purple-glowing hand on wigglytuff's head, knocking the normal type to the ground.

"Finish with cross chop!" Niko said, making an "x" motion with his hands and slashing forward, just as toxicroak did. This time, wigglytuff was out of the battle.

"Wigglytuff is unable to battle, toxicroak wins! Factory Head Thorton will send out his final pokémon!"

"Dustox, you're up!" Thorton shouted. "Let's turn this around! Use psybeam!"

The moth-like pokémon's eyes began to glow light purple, and twin beams shot out of it and towards toxicroak, making a direct hit. The poison mouth pokémon was repelled backwards, rolling across the field before exhibiting signs of defeat.

"Toxicroak is unable to battle! Dustox is the winner! Challenger Niko will now send out his second pokémon!"

"Err…mawile, let's go!" Niko said, shuffling through his three pokémon. "Use iron defense!"

The deceiver pokémon began to glow a bright gray color, indicating that it was hardening up. Niko then commanded mawile to use faint attack, while dustox used bug buzz. Just as mawile disappeared into thin air, the bug buzz struck, hitting the steel type upon returning to the field to strike dustox. Both pokémon fell to the ground, with dustox immediately getting back up and using psybeam, which mawile responded by flipping its venus fly trap head around to take the hit and land an aggressive crunch attack, throwing dustox through the air in the process.

"Dustox, silver wind!"

"Mawile, use iron head!" Niko shouted. Mawile's fly trap head began to glow bright gray as it charged forward at dustox, throwing the entire weight of the head at the moth pokémon, and slamming it into the ground. "Now, use faint attack!"

"Dustox, psybeam!" Thorton shouted. The psybeam certainly hit, but it wasn't enough to take on mawile. The steel type reappeared out of seemingly nowhere and once more threw its head at dustox, slamming into it like a baseball to a bat, and launching it into the stands opposite Niko's friends.

"Dustox is unable to battle, mawile is the winner! And the victory goes to Niko from Pallet Town!" The referee declared.

"Wow…great job there, mawile." Niko said as the deceiver pokémon turned to face him. "Thank you for battling with me. I really appreciate the effort. You and toxicroak."

Mawile nodded appreciatively before returning to its pokéball, which Niko pocketed. He then turned to see Lauren looking up and smiling at him.

"Good luck." He said, kissing her forehead. Lauren smiled and nodded before facing Thorton, who, since he was using rental pokémon, he didn't have to heal, was ready to go. The referee explained the rules of the match once more before Lauren and Thorton began once more.

"Abomasnow, you're up!" Thorton commanded.

"Miltank, I choose you!" Lauren shouted. "Use rollout!"

"Wood hammer, abomasnow." Thorton said. As soon as miltank made it to abomasnow, the large ice beast slammed its spiky arm into the cow, forcing her to roll in another direction and hit the wall underneath the stands. "Now, razor leaf!"

"Miltank, err…milk drink!" Lauren shouted to a now stumbling miltank. The cow nodded, beginning to glow a pearly white as sharp green leaves slammed into her. However, it wasn't enough, as abomasnow then pelted miltank with ice shard, forcing the milk cow pokémon to the ground. "Rollout!"

"Finish miltank off with blizzard!" Thorton said. However, the attack didn't seem to have much effect, as miltank rolled right into abomasnow, knocking it over. Lauren then commanded miltank to use body slam. "Razor leaf!"

Miltank slammed down on abomasnow's chest just as a torrent of leaves hit her, knocking her off of the ice beast and onto the battlefield. Thorton then commanded his pokémon to use blizzard, which finally managed to finish off the milk cow.

"Miltank is unable to battle, abomasnow wins! Challenger Lauren will now send out her second pokémon!"

"Ludicolo, I choose you!" Lauren shouted. "Use zen headbutt!"

"Abomasnow, ice shard!" Thorton commanded. The latter attack hit, which gave time for ludicolo to focus its thoughts. Once Lauren saw the blue sparks emitting from the carefree pokémon's head, she knew the attack was going to work. Ludicolo charged forward, slamming into abomasnow, nearly knocking it over.

Then, Lauren remembered something one of her friends mentioned, when they were discussing pokémon abilities one day. _Does ludicolo have the Swift Swim ability?_ She thought to herself. "Ludicolo, rain dance!"

"Use wood hammer!" Thorton commanded. Abomasnow's spiky arm began to glow bright green as it attempted to strike ludicolo, who simply dodged the attack while leaping around the battlefield, summoning a rain storm.

"Now, use zen headbutt!" Lauren shouted.

"Ice shard!" Thorton commanded. The ice shard landed, as expected, but ludicolo charged across the wet battlefield with increased speed, slamming into abomasnow and dragging it through the rain into the wall behind Thorton.

"Finish it off with hydro pump!" Lauren commanded, throwing a hand down through the air. Ludicolo opened its mouth and shout out a powerful burst of water up close, launching itself backwards but also harming abomasnow in the process. Ludicolo then stood in front of Lauren, looking rather proud of itself.

"Abomasnow is unable to battle, ludicolo wins! Factory Head Thorton will now send out his second pokémon!"

"Jynx, you're up." Thorton said coldly. "Use lovely kiss!"

The human shape pokémon winked to ludicolo and blew out a kiss in the shape of a large pink heart. Ludicolo quickly evaded the move via swift swim and responded with nature power, summoning three spheres in front of it—one made of fire, one made of ice, and one made of electricity, and shot it at jynx, successfully hitting it.

"Now, zen headbutt!" Lauren shouted, feeling confident in ludicolo's ability to land a swift attack. The carefree pokémon charged forward. However, Thorton commanded jynx to use psychic in response. The human shape pokémon's eyes began to glow bright purple, and ludicolo found itself floating in the air.

"Bring it towards you and use ice punch!" Thorton commanded. Jynx thrust ludicolo forward, its fist ice cold. Jynx then slammed it into ludicolo, releasing the grass type from psychic and repelling it backwards. Ludicolo hit the ground hard. "Now, lovely kiss!"

Once more, jynx threw a kiss towards ludicolo, and it landed successfully, instantly putting the carefree pokémon to sleep. Thorton then commanded jynx to use avalanche, and out of nowhere snow collapsed on top of ludicolo burying it.

Moments later, Lauren saw her rental pokémon remove itself from the snow, but collapsed instantly.

"Ludicolo is unable to battle, jynx wins! Challenger Lauren will now send out her third and final pokémon!"

"Ludicolo, return. Wormadam, I choose you!" she shouted, throwing out the bagworm pokémon, which was covered in gray-colored trash. "Use metal sound!"

"Lovely kiss!" Thorton commanded, but soon realized that his pokémon was too busy defending its hearing to use a move. "Blast it. Use psychic instead!"

"Wormadam, use psybeam!"

"Bring it forward and use lovely kiss!"

"Iron head instead!" Lauren commanded. As wormadam found itself being thrust forward towards its opponent by psychic, it's head began to glow bright gray before slamming into jynx…and then being put to sleep.

"Psychic!" Thorton shouted, and jynx immediately took control of wormadam, throwing it into the air and tossing it around the room. "And again!" He repeated, enough times to ensure his victory. However, after a few psychics, the wormadam woke up. "Lovely kiss again!"

"Dodge and use iron head!" Lauren commanded. Wormadam nodded and charged forward, hovering across the field to attack jynx. This time, it was successful, and the bagworm pokémon landed the steel type move on jynx, effectively knocking it out of the match.

"Jynx is unable to battle, wormadam is the winner! Factory Head Thorton will now use his third pokémon!"

"Dusclops, I choose you!" Thorton said with a smirk. "Use will-o-wisp!"

"Block it with metal sound!" Lauren said. The metallic sound waves emitting from wormadam were strong enough to force the small wisps of blue fire to burst before hitting their intended target, which seemed to infuriate Thorton. "Now, use psychic!"

"Shadow punch!" Thorton shouted. Dusclops stepped forward and shot out a spectral punch before getting enveloped in wormadam's psychic grip. Lauren and wormadam threw dusclops around, but the attack didn't seem to be having much effect, since as a ghost type dusclops hardly seemed affected by solid objects.

Lauren grit her teeth. "Metal sound!"

Dusclops tried to cover its ear (or whatever it used to hear sound) from the awful metallic noise emitting from wormadam before unleashing small blue wisps of fire in return. This time, the attack landed successfully, burning wormadam. Thorton commanded dusclops to then use future sight, a move Lauren hadn't dealt with yet.

Frightened by the prospect of future sight, and from the burn mark wormadam now held, Lauren commanded the bagworm pokémon to use metal sound once more. "Now, give it everything you've got, wormadam! Use iron head!" She shouted, thrusting a hand forward.

Wormadam's entire body began to glow bright gray as it charged at dusclops. The metal sound must've had some effect, since the iron head hit dusclops enough to knock it over. Lauren commanded a psybeam up close, and aimed at the single eye on dusclops' face. The attack also landed successfully, and dusclops was defeated.

"Looks like dusclops is unable to battle, wormadam wins! The victory goes to Lauren from Canalave City!" The referee declared.

Lauren ran up to hug wormadam, careful not to touch the burn mark. "Great job! You defeated two of Thorton's three pokémon! I really appreciate your help, and I'm glad to have battled with you, wormadam." Lauren said with a smile. The bagworm pokémon nodded as well before being returned to its pokéball.

Niko and the rest of the group joined Lauren and Thorton on the former's side of the battlefield. The Factory Head then pulled out two small gold pieces, each with the shape of the Battle Factory etched onto them.

"Niko, Lauren. Well done." He said in his ordinarily cold and robotic tone. "You have both earned the Factory Print, as proof that you have defeated the Frontier Brain in this facility. If you're looking for the next nearest facility, I recommend either the Battle Hall in the Survival Area, or the Battle Castle in the Resort Area."

"Thank you so much, Thorton. We appreciate the opportunity to challenge you." Lauren said with a bow. Niko concurred.

"It was no problem. Now, if you would like, I can take your pokéballs from you and return them to the storage room." Niko and Lauren nodded, surrendering the rental pokémon that helped earn them their second prints. Thorton then showed the group of five to the elevator door, and allowed them to ride up to the main lobby before he went to the storage room.

As the group exited the Battle Factory, they all looked around. It was evening, and there wasn't any sign of civilization in sight, except for the Battle Factory.

"So…what now?" JJ asked, turning to Niko and Fay.

"I guess we head to the Resort Area, then? That's where the Battle Castle is, right?"

JJ nodded, pulling up a map. "Yeah, looks like it's a little under a week to get down there. That'll be fun…"

Niko nodded, looking up at Stark Mountain, a stream of smoke rising from within. With Lauren, Fay, Brittany, and JJ by his side, he felt better about his prospects in the Battle Frontier, and was ready to continue on towards the next facility.


	9. A reconsideration

**Episode 9: A reconsideration**

The journey to the Resort Area began relatively smoothly. The group stopped in a small village somewhere in the forest on route 227 the day following their trip to the Battle Factory. There, they stocked up on supplies that they might need for road.

According to JJ and Fay, the trip would take them through a desert, which brought back memories of the last time the group encountered an arid, sand-filled landscape. Back in Hoenn Niko, JJ, Brittany, and Jake got lost wandering through the desert, and it took some time before they all made it back to one another. To avoid that, they searched around for goggles in the village. Conveniently enough, they had a small shop dedicated to desert-related gear.

Niko found himself staring at a poster in one of the shops. It depicted a young trainer fending off what looked to be a legendary pokémon made entirely of rock. He was fascinated by the way the artist created a feeling of suspense on a single canvass, while also giving off an aura of hope.

"Hmm…I never pegged you as an art connoisseur." Lauren said as she walked up from behind Niko, wrapping her arms around his waist. "Watcha looking at?"

"Just this painting. I don't know what about it I find so amazing. Just…it, I guess." Niko said without looking at Lauren. Eventually the blue-haired woman brought herself to Niko's said and they stared at it together for a moment. "How're you feeling?" He finally asked in a somewhat aloof tone.

"I'm fine…you?" Lauren replied, more curious about why Niko asked this particular question than his actual response.

"Fine as well."

"Is that really how you feel?" Lauren continued, trying to pry her boyfriend for answers.

"Yes."

"Then why did you ask me how I was doing?" She demanded to know.

"Because I care about you?" Niko snapped back. "Is that a crime?"

"N-no. No, it's not." Lauren stepped back, feeling a little hurt. "Sorry, I guess I've gotten used seeing double meanings in the things you say or ask me."

"Well, this isn't one of those times. In fact, I'm feeling better now than I have since before the Lily of the Valley Conference." Niko said with a smile. _Saved it_ , he thought to himself. To be fair, he was feeling a lot better—the battle with Thorton helped immensely. But there was still a lingering feeling deep within that he couldn't quite define or explain. But that was the last of his worries, and especially Lauren's, or anyone else's.

"Oh, good then!" Lauren said with a sincere smile. The same smile Niko adored so much. They then found the other three looking at random, oddly-placed trinkets in the shop before heading out.

"So what were you two staring at?" Brittany asked in a teasing tone.

"Uh…um…just a painting." Lauren said honestly.

" _Sure…_ " The brunette said with a wink. "I'm kidding." She added when Lauren began blushing. "What was the painting about?"

"A trainer challenging a massive-looking rock pokémon." Niko explained. "I'm not sure what drew me to it. It just looked fascinating, I guess. What were you all looking at?"

"Well…we saw some cool looking pokéballs. Apparently, they were made decades ago, but no longer work." Brittany said. "The shop owner told us they were the first pokéballs ever created, but I don't believe him."

"Why not?" Niko asked. He had never really learned much about the origins of pokéballs, so he couldn't confirm or deny the statement made by the shop owner.

"Because I read in a book somewhere—probably back in school—that pokéballs originated in the Johto Region using apricots."

"But…couldn't that shop owner have just brought the pokéballs here?" Niko asked.

"Why here, though? A small village on an island in the middle of the ocean?" Fay asked curiously. "That doesn't seem to make much sense."

"No idea. Either way, it doesn't matter." Niko said, effectively ending the conversation. "It's cool that you got to see some cool things, too." Brittany nodded in agreement, still pondering over the origins of the pokéball.

Nightfall came, and the group all set up camp on the edge of the desert. The following morning, they would begin their trek through. Before dinner and heading to bed, Niko and Lauren did some training in preparation for their upcoming challenge at the Battle Castle.

Niko particularly wanted to work with venusaur on frenzy plant, as the seed pokémon still hadn't mastered the move. He also wanted to train with his newly caught magmar. However, the spitfire pokémon wasn't feeling up to training, and instead ran around the area spewing flamethrowers. Sighing, Niko eventually returned magmar to his pokéball, clearly disappointed in his apparent inability to train fire types.

Lauren, meanwhile, was trying to teach slowking psychic. The royal pokémon didn't seem to have any initial problems with learning the move. Rather, the issue rested with slowking's inability to control how much energy he put into the move. On his first attempt, slowking accidentally picked _venusaur_ up and tossed the rather heavy grass type clean across the clearing they were sleeping in. She also worked with glaceon on learning ice shard, a move that they've both seem in action and have wanted to attempt to learn for some time. Glaceon, however, had difficulty with releasing the shards quickly enough to have any real effect. For this, Lauren and glaceon would practice against JJ and his breloom who was fast enough to help train glaceon in learning a priority-type move like ice shard.

This training continued late into the evening with a break for eating. After a while, venusaur, glaceon, and slowking all fell asleep while training, and Niko and Lauren quickly followed suit, laying up against the side of venusaur's body.

The following morning, the group got up early and continued their journey southwards to the Resort Area. Breathing heavily as he looked at the desert, Niko returned venusaur and put on his goggles, turning to watch his friends do the same.

"Ready?" He asked. They all nodded, and began their trek.

The desert wasn't nearly as treacherous as they had imagined. After leaving the Battle Factory Niko, JJ, and Brittany entertained Fay and Lauren with their adventures in the Hoenn Desert: how they got lost, finding one another, and coming across the tomb with the seven dots on it, and Jake catching his trapinch. The story didn't seem to ease Lauren's worries—she'd never been in a desert before, and was hoping to not get lost like her friends had. Fay, on the other hand, didn't seem worried.

Unlike in Hoenn, sandstorms weren't as abundant as they were in Hoenn, so the group managed to luck out in that regard. By the end of the day, they had only made it roughly halfway through the desert, according to the map on JJ's Pokétch. Fortunately, they found a small cave to sit in and rest. Like on route 226 a few days prior, they took turns sending their pokémon out to feed them and let them stretch a little before going to sleep.

That night, Niko had trouble sleeping. Part of it was due to the warmer weather keeping him awake, but he also had a lot on his mind. Thoughts and images swirled around in his head, creating a vortex of emotions that he felt was consuming him. Eventually, he got up and walked out of the cave and looked up at the stars above, wondering what else was out there. It was understandably cold that evening, but Niko hardly felt it.

He felt happy, but there was something else going on. _I'm winning matches again, why do I feel so…out of place? Why do I feel like I might not belong here anymore?_ This was a new thought for him. Niko had never considered that he was purposeless. He never felt like he was lacking in anything. He had a caring family, caring friends, and a caring and wonderful girlfriend. Plus, he had nearly two dozen pokémon that loved him.

He sat down on a nearby rock and pondered this some more, ultimately concluding that it was just the monotony of the desert that was affecting his mood. He heard once that the environment can influence one's thoughts and emotions. _Maybe I'll feel better when we get to the Resort Area. That'll be in a couple of days, I think_.

The whole time he was thinking under the starry night, Brittany sat there, occasionally watching him before falling back asleep, lost in her own thoughts.

The group finally made it out of the desert late into the afternoon the following day, which gave them some time to train in preparation for the Battle Castle. Niko and Lauren spent a few more hours working with their pokémon. By this time, venusaur nearly mastered frenzy plant, but quickly lost control of the roots he attempted to manipulate. Eventually, Niko fell onto his sleeping bag and sat there, trying to understand why it wasn't working.

Meanwhile, Lauren and glaceon had all but mastered ice shard. The attack was getting more and more accurate, and the fresh snow pokémon was releasing the attack at a quicker pace than before. Eventually, she was able to hit breloom before the mushroom pokémon could land a mach punch.

After having dinner and feeding their pokémon, the group of five went to bed. Fay was the last to fall asleep this time, having spent most of their down time working on a project for Professor Oak on a laptop, using his flaaffy's electrically-charged wool as a way to power the machine.

Niko woke up first that morning to see Fay still working, but hardly looking exhausted. Instead, the researcher was as stoic to the rest of the world as anyone could be. Niko packed up the camp while the others were waking up. According to JJ and Fay, they would make it to the Resort Area by the afternoon of the following day if they walked for most of the time in between.

Route 229 was the opposite of the desert—it was lush and green and filled with dozens of different pokémon species. Part of the route was a wide-open plain that connected to the sea in the middle of the island, and another was a dense forest of palm-like trees. Niko enjoyed walking through the plains, watching flocks of starly and staravia soar above him. He was right—a change in the environment would do him some good. Until…

"Dammit…" JJ said, shaking his head. Niko turned to look in his direction, and saw the one person—the one thing that Niko would have rather not seen.

It was Hunter, presumably training with his toxicroak. Niko immediately looked away, and led Lauren and his friends on a path where his rival wouldn't see them.

"Niko!" Hunter's deep, commanding voice bellowed out. "How's that rampardos of yours doing? Still alive?"

"Don't…Niko…" Lauren said, gripping his hand harder. But it wasn't working. Niko released his hand from Lauren's and turned to the tall man in all-black garb.

"What was that?" Niko yelled back. The distance between the two was roughly 100 yards, but they could see each other clear as day. "He's doing much better, thank you for caring." Niko added sarcastically.

Hunter smirked. "I take it you're challenging the Battle Frontier, then, if you're on this island." Niko nodded as Hunter began pacing towards him. "I take it you don't have many of the prints, right?"

"Two, as a matter of fact. Hall and Factory Prints."

"Ah, the Battle Factory. Makes sense that you won _that_ one. If you'd used your own pokémon, well…"

"And what about the Battle Hall, then?" Lauren snapped back. "Niko's pokémon won on their own merits that time."

"Argenta must've had some trash pokémon. I've beaten her, too. Didn't take much." He shook his head. "And I take it you're still with this loser, too? Sad…you always looked too good for him."

"But at least he cares about people and pokémon, unlike you!" Lauren shouted. By now Hunter was only a few dozen feet away from them.

"Pfft. Caring is irrelevant in battle. Why would I care about a pokémon if all they do is lose, like Niko's rampardos, or his supposedly strong venusaur?"

"Why don't you fight my venusaur, then!?" Niko shouted. "C'mon, Hunter, let's go!" His hands were balled in fists now. He was seething with rage.

"Niko…don't…" Brittany said. "You never come out of these confrontations feeling well."

"Do you think I can't beat him, Brittany?" Niko snapped, turning his head to angrily stare at the brunette, who immediately shied away. "That's what I thought. One-on-one?"

Hunter shrugged. "Fine. If you insist. But I'll have you know, I won the Lily of the Valley Conference and made it to the Champion's League. And you…didn't improve at all." He smirked, pulling out a pokéball. "How many times have you made it to the top 8. Three times now?"

Niko withdrew venusaur's pokéball. He wanted to prove to Hunter the power of him and his first pokémon.

"Weavile, let's go." Hunter said, choosing to not use toxicroak this time, and instead sending out the dark and ice type weasel-like pokémon. "Use ice shard."

"Venusaur, let's go! Razor leaf!" Niko shouted. He knew he was at a type disadvantage, but it didn't matter. If he and venusaur were truly strong partners, and if he wanted to become a pokémon master, then he could beat a weavile.

Venusaur cringed as the frozen shards hit him across the face, sides, and the flower on his back. In retaliation, he shook his body and a torrent of sharp green leaves erupted, all shooting towards weavile. In response, the sharp claws pokémon slashed at each of the leaves with unusually fast reflexes. Hunter then commanded weavile to use night slash, and within seconds the dark type was upon venusaur, slashing at the seed pokémon before using ice shard up close.

Niko grit his teeth. Weavile kept attacking its opponent mercilessly, in typical Hunter fashion. "Use stun spore!"

Yellow dust emitted from venusaur's flower, which also missed weavile, who dodged the spores and slashed at venusaur from behind.

The whole time Fay, JJ, Brittany, and Lauren watched as Niko screamed out commands one after another, each time with rage. It was clear that Hunter, and only Hunter, could rile their friend up like this. Plus, after being defeated by this trainer so recently, in a somewhat traumatic fashion when toxicroak stabbed rampardos.

Eventually, after taking enough of a beating from weavile, Niko had had it. He saw venusaur turn around to look at him, and they both nodded. It was time.

"Venusaur, frenzy plant!" He shouted, knowing fully well that the move would exhaust whatever energy venusaur had left. The seed pokémon, for his part, dug deep into the ground and unleashed a dozen spiked roots from the ground. "NOW!"

Each of the roots shot at weavile, who in response leapt through the air and used night slash to _break_ the roots, and then shot forward and used ice shard up close on venusaur, just as he lost control of the roots and thus lost control of the move entirely. Weavile then emitted a quick dark pulse that hit venusaur directly in the face, knocking the seed pokémon to the ground.

Niko ran over to check on venusaur, just as Hunter returned weavile and smirked along with toxicroak. "Are you alright?" Niko asked. The seed pokémon nodded, albeit with a melancholic expression. "Well, we'll talk later when we get to the Resort Area." He then returned venusaur and stood back up, staring Hunter in the face.

"I see you're trying to learn an ultimate move. Typical that you can't master it." Hunter said, scoffing. "You'll never be a strong pokémon trainer. That's why you can't learn frenzy plant, and that's why you will never beat me." He shrugged. "That's just the truth."

"You're an ass!" Lauren shouted out.

"And your point? I'm stronger than any of you. That's all that matters to me. I _will_ be the strongest trainer in the world."

"Her point is that you show no empathy, or even sympathy, for other people. You can't be a good trainer without having those traits." Fay said. "Niko here cares, and he wants to see the best in his friends and pokémon. You just don't."

"But my methods work. That's that difference. I've actually _won_ something. What's Niko here done? Nothing. He's useless to me, and he proves my point every time we battle."

No one seemed to want to refute that point. Hunter _was_ right. Niko can't seem to defeat him in a battle, formal or informal. Fay, Brittany, and JJ simply turned and left Hunter and toxicroak. Eventually, Lauren grabbed Niko by the arm and tried pulling him away. Her boyfriend eventually gave in, not taking his eyes off of his rival.

"Are you actually okay?" Lauren asked. Niko was silent. He didn't want to believe what Hunter said, but in the back of his mind, Niko felt he might be right.

* * *

 **Author's Note: I do hope you guys enjoyed this one. Trying to incorporate Hunter into this episode was difficult, and then writing the dialogue was hard, because I want to make him as harsh as possible without becoming too edgy or cliche. The plot for this season is supposed to really kick in around this episode, and I hope that I did it justice in future episodes. Enjoy!**


	10. All that shines

**Episode 10: All that shines**

The group made it to the Resort Area the day following Niko's encounter with Hunter. The previous night he tried to take his mind off of it by training with venusaur, magmar, and his other pokémon, but it wasn't doing much good. Venusaur felt out of place and exhausted from his battle with weavile, and so he largely sat out the training. Occasionally, the others on Niko's team—torterra, prinplup, and glalie—all walked over to see if the seed pokémon was alright. Then Niko explained the situation, and they seemed to all understand, having battled Hunter's pokémon at one point or another. Prinplup in particular understood the problem, having been Hunter's pokémon at one point.

Niko's friends also chose to give him a bit of space. They knew that the encounter was only brief, but everyone—even Fay—figured each one was doing a small bit of damage to Niko's psyche. Fay and Brittany especially understood the fragility of Niko's confidence, and had to urge Lauren not to interfere, as he needed the space now more than at any other time before (with the exception of the Sinnoh League). Niko needed to focus on the upcoming Battle Castle, as well as their inevitable rematch against Palmer, which both him and Lauren always had in the backs of their minds.

Lauren, on her part, spent time training her entire team this time. Neither she nor Niko knew what kind of battle they would face at the Battle Castle, but they could at least surmise that they would get to use their own pokémon this time. She struggled with trying to find new moves to help her pokémon learn, and so she engaged in more casual practice, with all of them working on their moves, as well as their speed and evasion.

The Resort Area was, simply put, beautiful. There were clean-cut lawns and trimmed hedges in the shapes of different pokémon. On top of the small hills were houses built in a more modern style. Palm trees littered the town. It looked more like a spa resort than a town, hence its name. Off in the distance, Niko noticed, was a massive purple-roofed building. To the town's far right, he saw a massive brick castle. _That's the place_ , he thought.

The first thing they did was visit the Pokémon Center to heal up their pokémon. Niko particularly wanted venusaur to get some rest, both physically and emotionally. The thing about venusaur, he observed, was that the seed pokémon tended to reflect his own emotions a lot. When Niko was happy, venusaur was happy. When Niko was sad, venusaur was sad. Even though he hasn't spent a much time with venusaur in the past couple of years, that bond hasn't really broken which, in his view, is a testament to their relationship.

After grabbing some lunch, Niko decided to go and train with his pokémon in the practice battlefield.

"I'll join you in a bit, Niko." Fay said, pulling out a laptop. "I just have to get some work done first."

"Oh, no worries Fay. Join me whenever you can." Niko said with a slight smile before walking over to Nurse Joy to grab his pokéballs. He then turned back to Lauren, Brittany, and JJ. "What're you three going to do today?"

"I'd like to check out the town, actually." Lauren said. She really wanted to stay with Niko, but she felt confident with her pokémon's ability to battle, and Niko needed the alone time. Although, it did irk her that he so readily accepted Fay's offer to join him, and not ask her. Her boyfriend simply nodded and kissed her forehead before walking off towards the practice battlefield.

Lauren, Brittany, and JJ then went out into the Resort Area. Almost as soon as they exited, a young man ran up to them, nearly tackling JJ to the ground. Panting, he pointed directly at Brittany.

"You…you're…Brittany from Vermilion City!" He said in between breaths.

"Um…yes? Who're you?"

"I'm…Andrew. Sorry, one of my coworkers saw you and your friends walk into the Pokémon Center, and sent me to find you." After reflecting on what he just said, he added, "That sounded way less creepy in my head, sorry."

Brittany giggled. "It's not a problem. But…why do you want to see me?"

"Because I work for a group called the Ribbon Syndicate. We're a service dedicated to treating only the best coordinators in the world. We are a spa and resort that only provides the best luxuries any trainer could ask for. We've been wanting to get ahold of you for some time now, since you won the Grand Festival. Would you care to join me today at the Ribbon Syndicate?"

Brittany, trying to soak in all of the information, simply nodded.

"Great! Come with me, we're in the purple-roofed house over on the edge of town." He said, pointing off in the distance. Soon enough, the two were gone, leaving JJ and Lauren to walk the town by themselves.

"So…" JJ said, twiddling his thumbs while togetic fluttered at his side. "Whaddya wanna do?"

Lauren shrugged. "We could go check out the shops around here, if there are any." JJ nodded, and the two—and togetic—proceeded onwards.

The two walked down the street, noticing the litany of different spa and beauty services available. JJ—who didn't find any particular interest in any of these—felt out of place. Lauren, on the other hand, seemed at least somewhat interested. But she too felt out of place. Niko was off on his own; Brittany was on her own doing coordinator things. And, if she was being honest with herself, she never really bonded often with the curly blonde pokémon breeder standing to her left.

It took the both of them some time before they finally came up with conversation. "So…you feel ready for the Battle Castle?" JJ asked as they both looked up at the looming brick building in the southern part of the town. "Looks…imposing, I guess."

"I think I'm ready, actually. My pokémon can handle whatever's given to them at this point."

"That's good. Hopefully Niko feels the same way." JJ replied. "I mean, I think he does. He's gotten more confident in recent years."

"But he doesn't feel confident right now." Lauren said. "And even if he does, he isn't showing it."

"He has a weird way of expressing his feelings, as you're well aware." JJ said, turning around and walking back down the street. They continued talking about Niko for a bit until Lauren eventually sighed and asked JJ if he wanted to go get food with her. "Sure." He responded, leading the way to a ramen house on the western edge of the Resort Area.

"Anyways, I hope Niko gets out of this…whatever it is…soon." Lauren finally said after they ordered food. "He worries me."

"I've noticed. And you have every right to be worried. But…I wouldn't let it get to you. Like I said, he has a way of figuring these things out on his own."

"You really believe in him, don't you?" Lauren asked, feeling a little hopeful.

"Of course. He's one of my best friends. Why wouldn't I? After all we've been through, I wouldn't be saying anything different." He then sat there in silence for a moment.

"I just want him to be happy, I guess. But…if this is how he always is, it'll be difficult to be with him."

JJ perked up, for once showing a look of concern. "You're not saying…"

"Oh, no no. I'm not! I-I don't think I am." She shook her head, unsure of her own thoughts. "It's just exhausting feeling like this. Worrying if he is in the right mindset. Damn Hunter…"

"He's something else. But for some reason, Niko is constantly bothered by him. I got over him, but Niko takes everything he says very personally. Especially when it came to me, you, and his rampardos. Don't get me wrong, I think he's a complete jerk, but I'm not going to let our time at the Tag Tournament get to me, you know? But Niko…it still bothers him, I think, how Hunter treated me and my shroomish. And, of course he's said mean things to you, too." JJ said, motioning to Lauren.

"Yeah, I'm the same way. I don't let Hunter's word hurt me. I mean, they do hurt, but I try not to dwell on it. While we were in Sinnoh I had other things I needed to worry about. The rampardos thing, though…that was inexcusable. I think Hunter did it on purpose."

"I agree. He seemed oddly satisfied with the damage he did."

They both went silent as they ate their food.

"I wonder what Brittany's up to right now." Lauren said. "That whole Ribbon Syndicate thing…sounds weird, doesn't it?"

"A little. But after becoming Top Coordinator, anything's possible I suppose." He shrugged. "She didn't seem too happy about it, though."

"More like surprised. Brittany doesn't seem to enjoy the fame that comes with being Top Coordinator. Although…she really felt touched when the little girl in the Fight Area met her. She has an impact on people now…it's really great to see."

"How do you feel about all of it?" JJ asked. "Brittany being Top Coordinator, I mean."

"She deserved it. After as much effort she put into trying to be the best she could be, she definitely earned the title. I wish I had done better, but she beat me fair and square."

"Do you think you'll ever get back into contests?" JJ asked. He never quite understood what exactly Lauren wanted to do with her future.

"Maybe, but more casually, I think. I want to focus more on battling now. I'd like to see other regions and meet new pokémon and compete in other Pokémon Leagues."

"So…you want to do exactly what Niko wants to do." JJ said, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes…" Lauren said, looking down and blushing a little. "But I don't know what he wants to do next."

"He'll probably want to go to another region and challenge their gyms. Or maybe go back and compete in another Pokémon League that he already placed in. Who knows."

"Yeah…I'd be great to go back to Johto and compete there. I loved living there."

"It's a great place. I personally enjoyed it a lot."

"Because your girl is there, right?" Lauren said teasingly. Now it was JJ's turn to blush. He nodded. "When are you going to see her again? Have you talked recently?"

"I don't know, and we talked when we were on Lily of the Valley Island. She's doing fine. Wants to leave Johto and see more of the world."

"Maybe she can travel with us." Lauren said cheerfully.

"Maybe…that'd be great."

They left the restaurant and continued walking around, eventually stumbling upon the only shop in the Resort Area. It was a general store, but with more high-end items than an ordinary pokémart. The two spent some time walking around, casually browsing the items on the various shelves.

Suddenly togetic, who had been silent most of the day, found herself attracted to a set of stones on display under a glass case.

"Togetic…?" JJ asked, turning to see the happiness pokémon fluttering towards the stones. He followed, only to see togetic staring at a specific stone in particular. It was a rock with a glassy, pale yellow exterior that resembled sunlight, or a lamp light. "Do you like this? Want it?"

"Oh, your togetic probably wants it because shiny stones will cause it to evolve." An elderly man said with a smile. When JJ looked confused, he laughed. "You didn't know that, did you?"

"No. I didn't know how togetic evolves." He then turned to the happiness pokémon. "Do you want to evolve?"

Togetic simply floated there, perhaps unsure herself. JJ then turned to the man, who looked like the shop owner, and asked for one. By this time, Lauren was now standing by the curly blonde, wondering what he was doing.

"So apparently this shiny stone evolves togetic." JJ said. He turned to the shop owner. "Out of curiosity, what else evolves by this stone? I've never seen one of these before."

"Ahh…well, other than togetic, roselia, minccino, and floette all evolve with this stone."

"Roselia evolves with it, too?" Lauren asked. Like with JJ, she knew that her pokémon evolved, but she never really knew _how_ it evolved. The shop owner nodded sagely.

"Indeed. Would you also be interested in a shiny stone? We do have a discount on a second evolutionary stone if you buy one."

JJ and Lauren looked at one another, and nodded. The shop owner smiled, pulled out two shiny stones from a box in a backroom, and placed them on the table. JJ and Lauren scrambled up enough money to pay for the stones and, after thanking the shop owner, they both exited the shop.

"So…do you really want to evolve, togetic?" JJ asked a second time. The happiness pokémon looked at him, albeit nervously and unsure of herself. "If you don't want to, then no pressure. But I bought this for whenever you choose to evolve.

Lauren then sent out roselia to ask the same. "Roselia, come on out!" She said, throwing a pokéball into the air and releasing the thorn pokémon on the ground. She then held out a shiny stone of her own, which instantly attracted roselia. "This stone apparently evolves you into a roserade. Do you want to?"

Roselia, who had been with Lauren for longer than most of her team, nodded. She was, and has always been, a rather ambitious pokémon.

"Alright, then. Here you go." Lauren said. And at the same time togetic took the shiny stone from JJ's hand.

Both roselia and togetic were then enveloped in a white light, and the two began to grow. Togetic grew significantly larger, with the exception of her feet, which got smaller. Her wings we now fused with her wings, which were triangular in shape with small wisps under them. Like when it was a togepi and togetic, togekiss retained her red and blue speckles, which were now scattered along her torso. She had a small, three pointed white tail. Lastly, there were three spikes adorning the top of her head—one white, one red, and one blue.

Roselia, on the other hand, grew twice her size. Her hair was made of white rose petals. She now had a leafy, green cape with a yellow bangle on her neck. She now has a dark green mask across her red, yellow-lidded eyes. Lastly, the red and blue roses on her arms were now in the shape of bouquets.

" _Togekiss, the jubilee pokémon. Normal and flying type. It shares many blessings with people who respect one another's rights and avoid needless strife_."

" _Roserade, the bouquet pokémon. Each of its hands contains different toxins, but both hands can jab with near-fatal power_."

"It also looks like togekiss learned a new move upon evolution…" JJ said, further examining the pokédex. "She now knows aura sphere…cool!" He said, looking up at the massive togekiss floating in front of him. "Well, you look beautiful, togekiss."

"And you too, roserade." Lauren said before pumping a fist. "And we're going to win the Castle Print, right?"

"Rose!" Roserade said cheerfully.

* * *

Back at the Pokémon Center, Niko and Fay spent a fair amount of time training the former's pokémon. For the most part, Niko had few issues during their training. Prinplup got closer to learning hydro pump, but venusaur was nowhere closer to mastering frenzy plant. Torterra, staraptor, and glalie kept practicing their moves, with torterra accidentally discovering a new move—leaf storm, which Niko wanted to utilize in their upcoming match at the Battle Castle.

Occasionally, Fay would step in and have a practice battle with one of Niko's pokémon, usually involving his charizard, flaaffy, or gible. Niko was impressed at how strong the little land shark pokémon was. It nearly tied in a practice match with prinplup at one point.

Eventually, Niko's pokémon got tired and their trainer and Fay returned them to Nurse Joy for a second round of healing. The two then sat down in their usual booth until JJ and Lauren came back.

"Hey!" Niko said, waving to his friends. He then noticed different pokémon following alongside them. "Did roselia and togetic…?"

"Yep!" Lauren said cheerfully, looking down at roserade. "After getting some ramen, we went to a shop and found these shiny stones. They apparently evolve both roselia and togetic." She shrugged. "Now we'll definitely get the Castle Print!"

"That's for sure." He smiled as Lauren sat down across from him, and JJ next to him.

"How was your day?" JJ asked.

Niko shrugged. "Not too bad. Just trained with Fay for a bit. I think we're ready, too. By the way…where's Brittany?"

Just then, he leaned over and saw the brunette walk in, looking oddly radiant. He tilted his head in confusion, forcing his three other friends to do the same.

"Woah." JJ said.

"Brittany!?" Lauren shouted happily.

"Yeah…the Ribbon Syndicate did me up a little. They were really nice, too! I felt a little like a princess, or something."

"Well, you look nice. What's the Ribbon Syndicate?" Niko asked. Brittany then sat down next to Lauren and Fay and explained her day. She got a typical "spa day" and was treated to a number of different services that, according to her, calmed her down significantly. It gave her a moment to reflect on her journey and consider where she wanted to go now that she was Top Coordinator. "What do you want to do, then?"

"I have a few ideas, but I really want to keep going on with you guys, so it'll depend on what we all decide as a group." She said. Brittany seemed to shy away from the topic, and instead continued on describing the services she received. "I think what I enjoyed the most was the food. The servers were so sweet and considerate to me, and the quality of the meals was the best I've ever had."

"Sounds like you had a great day, then." Fay commented, receiving a joyful nod from Brittany. The other four then talked a bit about their days. Brittany seemed most excited about the dual evolution of roserade and togekiss, and wanted to see them immediately.

After a couple more hours of talking, they made their way to bed. The following day, Niko and Lauren would compete to earn their third print. As they lay there in bed, they both felt confident in their abilities to win, even if Niko had his doubts. Brittany felt more relaxed and sure about her future as a Top Coordinator. All in all, there didn't seem to be any problems brewing on the horizon, which allowed the five of them to all sleep well.


	11. The princess and the butler

**Episode 11: The princess and the butler**

The Battle Castle looked more imposing than it actually was. From Niko and Lauren's perspective, the massive brick castle towered over them. After waking up feeling well-rested, the group was ready to complete their visit to the Resort Area with Niko and Lauren's quest to obtain the Castle Print.

They walked up to the large double doors and Niko rung the circular doorbell. He could hear footsteps on the other side of the door, although they were faint. Moments later, the door opened, and a tall man in a black and purple suit with a white shirt and vest underneath. He wore glasses and had black hair with a pale yellow stripe through the middle that was gelled backwards in a long curl. To compete his oddly dashing look, he wore a gold pocket watch.

"Greetings. I am Darach, the host and caretaker of the Battle Castle under the orders of Lady Caitlin. How may I help you?" He asked in a proper-sounding voice. While he was certainly calm, he gave off an oddly intimidating feel to Niko, who looked at Darach with suspicion.

"Hello, Darach." Niko said in an equally proper tone. "My name is Niko, and this is Lauren. We're both here to challenge the Battle Castle for the print."

"Ah, of course. Please follow me. Are your friends participating as well?" Darach asked politely, locking his eyes on Brittany, JJ, and Fay.

"No, only us two. And separately, if that's alright."

"It's perfectly fine. Preferred, actually." Darach said with a soft smirk. "Follow me, if you will."

As they walked down the hall, Niko and his friends looked around them, marveling at the patterned wallpaper, rugs, and ceiling. There were busts of certain pokémon and other unrecognizable humans. The chandeliers were molded in intricate designs and bathed the hallway in bright light which, oddly enough, was candlelit.

On the way, Darach was telling Niko and Lauren about the history of the Battle Castle. Hundreds of years ago, it was the home of a monarch that ruled over Sinnoh and Battle Island. His descendent—Caitlin—is the current and only heir to the throne, and it is Darach's job to tend to her every need.

A few minutes later, they made it to the room Darach intended to take them. It was a large room with a battlefield in the middle, and one set of stands to the right. To the left, however, was a balcony with a single woman sitting in the seats. From what Niko could see, she was shorter than Darach, and had long light brown and blonde hair. She had a white dress on with a transparent cloak laying over her shoulders.

"Darach!" She shouted down at the butler. "Who are these children?"

"Lady Caitlin," Darach said, bowing. "May I present to you Niko and Lauren. They both wish to challenge this facility for the Castle Print."

Caitlin glared down at Niko and Lauren with contempt. She eventually sighed, and nodded. "Then so it shall be. Welcome, Niko and Lauren. I am Lady Caitlin of the Battle Frontier. I am the head of the Battle Castle and a member of Unova's Elite 4. You say you both wish to challenge us?" Niko and Lauren nodded. "Very well. I wish you the best. Darach!" She shouted, and the butler nodded, quickly walking over to the opposite end of the battlefield. "You, lady, you will be the first to challenge the Castle Valet and the Frontier Brain of the Battle Castle, Darach!"

Lauren, astounded that Caitlin herself wasn't her challenger, nodded and walked over to the side opposite Darach. Niko and the other three took their places in the stands.

"This will be a three-on-three match between Castle Valet Darach and challenger Lauren." Caitlin said, looking down at the both of them. "Begin!"

"Staraptor, I choose you!" Darach shouted, summoning the all-too familiar predator pokémon.

"Glaceon, let's go!" Lauren commanded. "Ice shard!"

"Aerial ace!"

Staraptor dove for glaceon, taking the small chunks of ice being hurled towards it. However, it still managed to slam into glaceon, the white tendrils encompassing the bird. As staraptor was attempting to distance itself, glaceon lurched her head backwards and, on Lauren's command, use ice fang. Glaceon grabbed onto staraptor's left talon and threw it down onto the ground.

"Now, use ice shard again!" Lauren commanded.

"Roost!" Darach shouted. Staraptor began to glow a bright white color in a similar manner to venusaur's synthesis. "Now use aerial ace!"

"Ice fang!" Lauren cried out. Glaceon took the hit and grabbed onto staraptor once more with her teeth, this time gripping the predator pokémon's shoulder. The chilling touch surged through staraptor's body, forcing it to elicit a pained cry.

"Double team, staraptor!" Darach said. The flying type duplicated itself, allowing it to escape glaceon's freezing grip. "Now, aerial ace!"

"Glaceon, hit it with ice shard again!" Lauren commanded, watching at staraptor got pummeled with a barrage of ice chunks before crashing once more into glaceon. This time both pokémon fell to the ground, and the fresh snow pokémon had difficulty getting back up. "You can do this, glaceon. I believe in you!"

Glaceon stood back up opposite staraptor, her teeth emitting a chilly air. Lauren commanded her to use quick attack, followed by ice shard. Staraptor retaliated with double team, but glaceon was quicker, landing the ice shard before staraptor could copy itself.

"Use ice fang!" Lauren commanded. Glaceon lunged forward, grapping onto staraptor before it could do anything. "Let's win this! Ice shard!"

Glaceon, while still biting onto staraptor, unleashed a flurry of ice chunks that hit staraptor. The predator pokémon fell to the ground when glaceon let go, defeated.

"Staraptor is unable to battle!" Caitlin said. "Glaceon is the winner!"

Darach returned his pokémon before pulling out a second pokéball. "Empoleon, I choose you!"

"Alright glaceon, still want to battle?" Lauren asked. Glaceon turned and nodded. "Great, let's do this then. Use ice shard!"

"Block it with metal claw!" Darach shouted. The emperor pokémon's flippers began to glow a bright gray color as it slashed away at the ice chunks. "Now, brick break!"

"Ice shard again!" Lauren said, realizing that she should consider substituting glaceon out. Deciding against it, she asked for the fresh snow pokémon to continue pummeling empoleon with ice chunks. However, it didn't seem to work, as the water type's flipper began to glow white before it slammed it downwards in a chopping motion, hitting glaceon on the head and knocking her to the ground. "Glaceon…?"

"Glaceon is unable to battle! Empoleon wins!" Caitlin declared.

"Return, glaceon." Lauren said with a weak smile. "You did your best, and that's what matters. Lopunny, I choose you!"

"Empoleon, brace yourself." Darach said. "Use brick break!"

"Agility and block with thunderpunch!" Lauren shouted. The rabbit pokémon burst forward to meet her new opponent, her fist glowing with surging electricity. The punch met the brick break, but the steel plating on empoleon's body conducted the electricity, forcing it to surge through the emperor pokemon's body. "Now, bounce and hi jump kick!"

Lopunny, using her powerful legs, shot directly into the air while empoleon crouched to one knee, paralyzed. Lopunny then shot back down, her foot glowing white.

"Brick break!" Darach commanded. Empoleon then slowly raised its steel flipper to meet lopunny's foot, although it was too late—the attack landed, and lopunny backflipped to land on the ground unharmed, while empoleon was still trying to recover from the thunderpunch.

"Lopunny, thunderpunch again!" Lauren commanded. The rabbit burst forward once more and slammed her fist down on empoleon, who collapsed face forwards onto the ground. "Finish it off with hi jump kick!"

Leaping back into the air, lopunny attempted to once more land her attack. However, this time empoleon was able to recover from its paralysis and dodge the move. Lopunny continued downward and crashed into the ground before taking a sideways brick break from her opponent, launching her into the wall opposite the stands.

"Lopunny, get up!" Lauren cried out.

"Empoleon, use waterfall!" Darach commanded.

"Agility and thunderpunch!" Lauren shouted. Lopunny shot forward, her fist lighting up with electricity. Just as empoleon's eyes started glowing light blue, a row of water erupting from between its flippers. Empoleon then leapt onto the row of water as if it were a water slide, charging at lopunny, who managed to connect the thunderpunch directly on empoleon's crown, launching the penguin backwards. Empoleon struggled to get back up.

"Empoleon is unable to battle, lopunny wins!" Caitlin declared.

"Houndoom, you're up!" Darach shouted, thrusting a third pokéball out. "Use fire fang!"

"Hi jump kick!" Lauren commanded. However, she underestimated the speed of the dark pokémon, whose fiery fangs grabbed onto lopunny just before she left the ground, and threw the rabbit back to the ground. "Err…thunderpunch!"

Lopunny raised her upper body and slapped an electrified fist against houndoom's face. To this, Darach and houndoom retaliated with counter, which caused it to slam into lopunny with an equal force of thunderpunch. The two dragged across the battlefield, before lopunny slammed another thunderpunch against houndoom to remove the dark pokémon from her. Slowly getting back up, lopunny used bounce on Lauren's command, but refrained from hi jump kick, due to houndoom's speed. This time, the attack hit, but lopunny's foot was met with a crunch attack from her opponent, forcing her back onto the ground with incredible force, and defeating the rabbit pokémon.

"Lopunny is unable to battle! We are now down to the final pokémon on each side." Caitlin announced.

"Lopunny, return. You did a great job." Lauren said, briefly looking around her. _Let's win this_. "Infernape, I choose you!"

"Hmm…interesting choice." Darach said, scratching his chin. He then saw infernape charge forward with a mach punch to houndoom's face, knocking it backwards. "Oh. A quick pokémon. This'll be fun. Houndoom, use counter!"

"Mach punch again! And then move into close combat!" Lauren shouted. She knew that, at this point, she could win the battle. She could get her next Frontier Print. And she watched as infernape punched and kicked houndoom without any sign of exhaustion, only taking a counter or two from the dark pokémon.

Lauren also recognized how far her infernape had now come. She remembered her monkey as a small chimchar who was less interested in battling and more on playing around with the other pokémon travelling with her. It made her regret not initially giving her a chance, but at the same time remember Niko's advice to her regarding chimchar. Lauren then realized how right Niko was—and that infernape was not only an absurdly powerful pokémon now, but also one of her closest relationships on her team. She smiled, a slight tear emitting from her eye as pride overwhelmed her.

"Infernape! Finish houndoom off with a mach punch!" She commanded, thrusting a hand forward. The flame pokémon jumped several yards backwards before launching off of the floor of the battlefield, almost gliding across as she slammed her fist into houndoom, knocking the dark pokémon to the ground in defeat.

"Houndoom is unable to battle!" Caitlin said before snapping her gaze towards Darach. "You lost! Unacceptable! Win me the next battle!"

Darach returned the defeated houndoom before turning to Caitlin and bowing. "My apologies, Lady Caitlin. I will do better next time, I promise you that." He then watched as Niko and Lauren traded places.

As Niko took his place across from Darach, he realized that the Castle Valet wasn't healing his pokémon. _Does he use different pokémon?_ He wondered. Caitlin then explained the rules of the battle once more. And, oddly enough, Darach began the same exact way.

"Staraptor, I choose you!" He shouted, summoning the predator pokémon.

"Hmm…" Niko said, withdrawing a pokémon of his own. "Glalie, let's go!"

"Ah, another ice type. You two are clever. Staraptor use quick attack!"

"Glalie, ice beam!" Niko shouted. The face pokémon took the full weight of staraptor against his own before unleashing a steady stream of ice on the flying type, inadvertently freezing it's wing and forcing it to the ground. "Wow…that was easy enough. Glalie, we got this! Use crunch!"

"Endeavor, staraptor!" Darach commanded. The predator pokémon began to glow and shot towards glalie, causing it to roll backwards through the air. "Aerial ace!"

"Glalie, protect!" Niko commanded, and the ice type conjured a protective shield around him, blocking the aerial ace. "Now, ice beam!"

Once more, glalie released a stream of ice that hit staraptor's wing, forcing the bird to crash into the ground. Before Darach could issue another attack, glalie dove directly downwards and used crunch on staraptor before the gray and white pokémon could do anything.

"Darach!" Caitlin shouted down at her butler. "Staraptor is unable to battle!"

"My apologies, Lady Caitlin. This will be over with quickly enough." He said, bowing once more. "Return, staraptor. Empoleon, I choose you! Aqua jet!"

"Glalie, protect!" Niko commanded as the massive emperor penguin charged forward, coated in a pure blue coat of water. However, glalie rendered it ineffective with the protect move. By now, Niko had figured that Darach's team was generally the same, but the pokémon had different moves. He didn't remember the empoleon against Lauren using aqua jet.

"Rock slide!" Darach shouted, thrusting his hand into the air. Just then, dozens of rocks fell from the ceiling at glalie, who duplicated himself on Niko's command. Nevertheless, the rocks still hit glalie, giving empoleon the chance to strike. "Shadow claw, now!"

Empoleon's steel claws started to emit spectral energy as it lunged towards glalie—only a few yards away—and slashed at it, knocking the face pokémon to the ground. Darach then took the opportunity to command another rock slide, which Niko and glalie weren't fast enough to protect from.

"Glalie is unable to battle! Empoleon wins!" Caitlin declared, sitting back with a look of satisfaction on her face. Niko smirked; if all went well, she wouldn't be feeling like that for much longer.

"Glalie, return. You did great, buddy. I'm really proud of you." Niko said, exchanging pokéballs. "Venusaur, I choose you!"

Erupting out of the pokéball came Niko's venusaur, who briefly turned to his trainer with a determined look. Niko nodded.

"Use razor leaf!"

"Aqua jet!" Darach commanded. The leaves quickly rendered the aqua jet ineffective, and Niko soon realized that it wasn't Darach's intention to actually hit venusaur with aqua jet. "Drill peck!"

The emperor pokémon's beak elongated into a long, white triangle that poked venusaur in the front right leg. The seed pokémon winced from the attack before using razor leaf up close. Even though it wasn't technically effective against a steel type like empoleon, the attack still distracted empoleon enough for venusaur to charge up another attack.

Niko watched at his pokémon's flower began to emit a bright green aura and subsequently glow the same color. He smirked. He knew he had the advantage now.

"Use solarbeam!" He shouted, thrusting his hand forward. Venusaur roared out as a green beam of energy hit empoleon, launching it backwards and into the ground close to Darach. Venusaur sighed with apparent satisfaction. But they weren't out of the woods yet.

"Drill peck!" Darach commanded, and the empoleon got back up and charged forward, beak glowing white like before.

"Stun spore!" Niko commanded. Once more, the drill peck landed, causing venusaur to wince again. From his flower venusaur emitted a yellow spore that halted the empoleon in its tracks.

Niko then took a deep breath. It was either then or never. He knew venusaur also understood that it was time to at least try. If not, then they might lose if the seed pokémon lost too much energy. He turned to see Fay and Lauren, both of whom were staring at him with confusion.

"Venusaur? You want to try it?" Niko asked softly. While empoleon stood there, unable to move, venusaur turned back to see his trainer through his left eye, and nodded. "Alright, then. Venusaur! Use frenzy plant!"

Venusaur roared out, summoning the natural world underneath him. Suddenly a dozen spiked roots erupted out of the ground and started twisting and snapping wildly around him.

"Control the roots! You can do this! Give it everything you've got venusaur!" Niko called out. Venusaur closed his eyes before opening them moments later, and suddenly empoleon found itself wrapped up in the roots before venusaur threw it high into the air and then shot other roots at it, smacking it left and right before it descended to the ground, and struck a final root at the emperor pokémon, launching it across the field, behind Darach, and into the wall behind them.

Niko's jaw dropped. He finally did it. Venusaur finally used frenzy plant.

However, the seed pokémon collapsed to the ground from exhaustion. Like empoleon, he was also unable to battle.

"Empoleon and…venusaur—yes, venusaur—is unable to battle!" Caitlin shouted.

"Houndoom, I choose you!" Darach shouted, sending out an ordinary houndoom with a red and yellow sash around its neck.

Niko nodded. He expected this. But he had no idea what kind of tricks Darach might still have up his sleeve. Taking a chance, he pulled out his third pokéball. "Prinplup, I choose you!" He briefly noticed Darach smirk.

"Houndoom, thunderfang!" Darach commanded. Electric sparks surged out of the dark pokémon's mouth as it burst forward toward prinplup.

"Hydro pump!" Niko commanded, and the penguin unleashed a torrent of water from his mouth, hitting houndoom and reacting with its fangs, creating an explosion that repelled houndoom backwards, causing the dark pokémon to roll across the battlefield.

Houndoom struggled to get up, but as it did the sash it was wearing began to shimmer a little.

"Thunderfang!" Darach shouted, taking advantage of Niko and prinplup's initial confusion. Houndoom charged forward, almost as if it hadn't taken any damage. Yet, Niko could still notice the bruises on houndoom's body. _What happened to it? What's the sash it's wearing?_

"Prinplup, dodge and use drill peck!" Niko commanded, and while the penguin attempted to evade, he couldn't, instead feeling the electricity from houndoom's sharp teeth sinking into him. Nevertheless, he lurched his head towards houndoom and landed the drill peck on the dark pokémon's shoulder, eliciting a brief yelp from the dark type.

"Now, water pulse!"

"Houndoom, reversal!" Darach commanded. Small orbs surrounded houndoom as it tackled prinplup. The water pulse fell out of the penguin's flippers and burst on contacting houndoom's head. The dark type collapsed onto its side, while prinplup fell to one knee, the force of the attack too much.

"Hang in there, prinplup…" Niko said softly. "You can do this."

Then houndoom went unconscious.

"Houndoom is unable to battle, prinplup wins…" Caitlin said, slumping into her chair, apparently too exhausted to yell at Darach. "Niko is the winner…"

"Yay, prinplup!" Niko shouted, running over to the penguin and embracing it. "I'm very proud of you. And venusaur. And glalie."

Prinplup nodded, exhausted but satisfied as well. Darach then approach Niko and Lauren (the latter having just walked over to her boyfriend, along with Brittany, JJ, and Fay). Niko returned prinplup and stood up, still paling in comparison to Darach's height.

"Niko, Lauren, you have bested me, and on behalf of Lady Caitlin, I must present you both with the Castle Print. Here," He said, pulling out two small, gold prints with small castles on them. "I wish you the best of luck in your journey." He looked up, beyond the group, and continued. "The closest facilities to us are the Battle Factory near Stark Mountain, and the Battle Arcade on Circus Island. It's just west of the Resort Area, on an island along route 230. It won't be hard to miss, although it is a several day trek." He bowed to them. "Thank you for the battles. On behalf of Lady Caitlin, I say that you both are talented trainers that will go as far as you like."

"Thanks, Darach. We appreciate that. And the battle." Niko said, nervously scratching his head. Darach nodded with a smile, and led the group out of the Battle Castle.

"Three down, two to go!" Brittany said happily. She looked at both of her friends, noticing how happy they both seemed.

And they were. Lauren felt happy because she won the Castle Print, and that Niko was happy. Niko, on the other hand, felt like his pokémon were getting stronger, and whatever Hunter told him was slowly becoming less relevant. It was a good day.


	12. Reflections

**Episode 12: Reflections**

Niko fell down on his bed in the Resort Area's Pokémon Center. Things were once more looking up. Although, given his luck, life would begin to turn in the other direction. It wasn't long ago that he felt satisfied with the direction of his life, only to feel like he was losing his sense of self a few days later.

He was content because like his girlfriend, he had received his third Frontier Print, and did really well. Prinplup won the match for him, but it was venusaur that made him the proudest when he mastered frenzy plant. The ultimate move had been plaguing Niko for some time now, and his inability to help venusaur learn the move said more about his abilities as a trainer rather than venusaur's skill as a pokémon, and Niko largely took responsibility for their joint failure. However, venusaur finally figured the move out, and in that moment Niko felt in unison with his first pokémon.

But the lingering issues remained. Niko didn't feel whole. He felt like something was missing, either internally or externally. He felt purposeless. Of course, he didn't want to concern his friends with these matters. They felt petty, and it didn't help that Niko had difficulty expressing or explaining them.

 _"_ _You'll never be a strong pokémon trainer. That's why you can't learn frenzy plant, and that's why you will never beat me."_

 _"_ _But my methods work. That's that difference. I've actually won something. What's Niko here done? Nothing. He's useless to me, and he proves my point every time we battle."_

Hunter's words kept running through his mind. Each time Niko ran the scene through, he found himself becoming more convinced that his rival might be right. Did he really have the skill—or at least, the potential—to be great? Was everything he has done so far, including his travels, for nothing?

He considered all of this as he lay there. He told his friends he was tired, and the other four went to hang out near a community pool in the Resort Area that afternoon, as a way of relaxing before heading to Circus Island. That would be where Niko and Lauren would compete for their fourth Frontier Print—at the Battle Arcade. He thought about potentially joining them later, but he didn't even know where they were.

Instead, he walked out onto the practice battlefield. He wanted to spend some time working with magmar, his recent pokémon and one that he had a particularly difficult time training.

"Mag!" Magmar said as he erupted out of the pokéball.

"Hey buddy. Want to train for a bit?" Niko asked. Magmar eyed him suspiciously. "Right. You don't like to train. Well, think of it like this. To be good at battling, you have to practice, right? You have to learn how to use new moves to beat your opponent faster, right?"

Magmar nodded, obviously more interested.

"That's all training is. Just practicing those moves so you can become better. And that's partly my job, you see? To help you be the strongest magmar out there."

The spitfire pokémon nodded again, seeming more satisfied. He then turned his head upwards and spit out a stream of fire.

"Exactly! Your flamethrower wouldn't be as powerful if you didn't keep trying to use it. That's basically all we do when we train. But if you don't want to, that's completely fine. I've had pokémon before that preferred not to train."

Now magmar looked completely confused, as if trying to comprehend _why_ a pokémon didn't want to get stronger. He suddenly got excited, and began running around, punching the air as he usually did, but this time it looked like it had more purpose. The two continued training for another hour or so before the other got back from the pool.

"How was it?" Niko asked as Lauren, Brittany, JJ, and Fay all sat down in their booth.

"Relaxing!" Lauren said, leaning over onto his shoulder. "How was your alone time?"

"Great, actually. Magmar finally wants to train with me."

"Really?" Fay asked. "That was oddly quick."

"It was. I managed to persuade him to start working on his moves, and slowly he got used to it. Hopefully we can continue working on it."

"So, this Circus Island…" Brittany said, leaning over and grabbing JJ's map from his bag. "We're going to have to swim there, right?" The others nodded. "Fay, do you think your gyarados is up for it?"

"Of course he is. And charizard would love to fly around. He loves being able to move around outside of his pokéball." Fay replied, much to the group's relief. As Niko, Brittany, and JJ knew very well, getting across the water was never an easy prospect. Luckily, they've been able to find people along the way that have helped them.

"Great. And the trip should take a couple of days. So it shouldn't be too bad." JJ added.

* * *

The following morning, the group left the Resort Area and continued their journey, now westward towards Circus Island. Fortunately for them, the first day was largely on land: they made it to the sea—route 230—by sunset.

It was one of the rare nights where the group got to see the sun set in the west, on the water. Beyond the sea, Niko and his friends couldn't see anything but the surface of the water, and so they took advantage and sent out their teams to watch it all from the vantage point of their camp, which rested on the edge of the forest they had recently left.

"We don't get to see many of these, do we?" Lauren asked, leaning over to Niko. He nodded, a faint smile written on his face. "I noticed magmar is getting stronger. That's good—right?"

Niko nodded. "It is. I'm proud of him." He said, turning and looking at the spitfire pokémon, who was staring deeply into the sun, in awe at the orange glow it was giving off, almost as if he had never seen one before. He also watched roserade sitting atop torterra, watching the sunset from a restful spot atop the continent pokémon.

Then he noticed all of the pokémon sitting together in groups, with venusaur sitting close with umbreon, charizard, and wartortle. It was surely a sight to behold—four years in the making, and all of the pokémon that have travelled together, trained together, all sitting together for a peaceful moment.

Lauren turned in the direction Niko was looking. "See how roserade and torterra are sitting?" Niko nodded. "They look really adorable together, don't you think?"

"I agree." He then pointed to venusaur and the others. "Those four have travelled together for a while, too. I think it's so amazing that they all still recognize each other…almost like nothing ever changed."

Lauren looked up at Niko and gave a sudden look of concern, although Niko didn't notice it. "Yeah. Almost like they belong together, right?"

Niko turned to look at her, noticing her concern but choosing to not address it. "Kind of like that."

Over a few yards away, the other three were also observing the pokémon, but also Niko and Lauren. "They're doing okay, right?" Fay asked, in obvious reference to the couple.

"I believe so. It's been difficult since Lily of the Valley." Brittany observed. "Niko seems off, and it's affecting everything around him. It makes sense, but I wish he would at least talk to someone."

"What's to say he isn't?" JJ asked. Brittany shook her head.

"No. He hasn't told either of you, I'm guessing. He hasn't told me. And it's clear he hasn't told Lauren. I don't think even he knows what's going on with him."

Fay sat still for a moment. "I think it's cool how our pokémon are sitting together. Venusaur, wartortle, charizard, and umbreon. Just like old times."

Brittany's sincere smile said everything either Fay or JJ needed to know.

"I miss those times." JJ said, reflecting on the sight. "Without you guys, I wouldn't have met my pokémon at all. I wouldn't have met Maizie, and I certainly wouldn't have wanted to become a pokémon breeder."

"It's one of those 'fork-in-the-road' moments, isn't it?" Brittany said, also reflecting on it. "If I didn't meet you all on the S.S. Anne, I wouldn't have gone to Hoenn, and then become Top Coordinator. I wouldn't have had the kind of impact on people that I do now."

"We certainly have come a long way. And we've all grown as people since then." Fay added. "I wouldn't take any of it back, that's for sure."

Brittany and JJ both nodded, smiling at they turned back to watch the sunset.

"I just wonder what's next." Brittany said. "For all of us. Every summer that's the big question, but it seems different this time."

"We're all growing up, I think." JJ said. "We're growing as people and as trainers. I think, for most of us, we're finally figuring ourselves out."

Fay laughed a little, prompting a slight turn of the head from his friends. "JJ, never in my life would I have expected you to be so…wise?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" JJ asked defensively.

"I mean that to be a good thing. You've definitely grown up. It's nice to see, especially considering you used to be the nervous, confidence-lacking child that Niko and I met and started out journey with." Brittany nodded in agreement.

"I guess so. I appreciate that, though." JJ said, looking at Fay admiringly. "You too."

The black-haired trainer contorted his face in bemusement. "Was I nervous all the time?" JJ clammed up, eliciting a chuckle from Brittany.

* * *

Route 230 was a relatively calm route to ride on. Certainly easier to traverse than most of the sea paths the group has taken in the past. Initially, Lauren was nervous to ride gyarados a second time, but with the assistance of Fay (much to Niko's hidden jealousy), she managed to get back on.

For most of the journey that first day, Lauren would hold onto Niko (in her mind, for dear life), and Brittany and JJ would sit on the other two humps of the atrocious pokémon's back. While they rode along, they would point to some of the other pokémon they saw in the ocean. Brittany, at one point, saw a group of spheal swimming just south of them, and decided to have her own join the pack. Her spheal clearly enjoyed himself, splashing and jumping in and out of the water with the others.

They ended the day with a stop on a small island somewhere off of the path they were taking. Like most of the places they had stopped, it wasn't the most comfortable, but it was big enough for them to rest and, more importantly, for their pokémon to take some time to stretch a little after spending most of the day in their pokéballs.

That night went by quickly, with the only notable exception being Niko initially having difficulty sleeping. Eventually, he fell asleep looking directly up at the stars. On that particular night, the universe looked lovely.

The last day of their trip to Circus Island began like any other ordinary day. This time, each of them sent out their water pokémon to swim alongside them for a bit. Prinplup, azumarill, wartortle, and spheal all swam alongside. Slowking chose not to, only because in Lauren's brief experience with the royal pokémon, it was clear he preferred to not swim, and the blue-haired trainer couldn't seem to figure out why.

"You know," Brittany began, looking at the three happily swimming along, "It reminds me of the time they all learned water pulse." He looked to Niko and JJ, who both nodded.

"That was the day you caught vespiquen, too!" JJ added. "Yeah, what a day that was. But hey, they all learned it, didn't they?"

The brunette nodded. "Well, spheal didn't, but wartortle did. Besides the fact that a bunch of bees were out to kill us, I'd say it was a good day."

"Certainly a successful one." Niko added, not turning to look back out of fear of accidentally falling off of gyarados. Looking down at prinplup, who was truly enjoying himself with his friends, Niko remembered how uncertain prinplup initially was at joining him. Being with Hunter couldn't have been easy for the little penguin. Yet it explained prinplup's willingness to work harder than Niko's other pokémon, and to be the strongest it could be. And Niko was proud as a result. It made him realize how gifted he was to be a trainer, despite what Hunter said.

"Wait…" JJ said, turning to his left—where the pokémon were swimming—and then behind him. "Where's azumarill?"

Brittany, Lauren, and even Niko all turned backwards. Even gyarados moved around to see before roaring off in a southeastwards direction. Squinting, they all saw something moving around in the water.

"What the—" Fay said from atop charizard. "Oh, no!" He shouted, zooming off with the flame pokémon towards the thing. Gyarados joined in, swimming even faster and nearly dropping the others into the water in the process. Soon enough, Niko saw it.

"Azumarill!" JJ shouted, pulling out another pokéball. As he did, prinplup, wartortle, and spheal all leapt forward out of the water towards the culprit.

A horde of tentacruel were surrounding a frightened azumarill, who was nervously treading water in the center of the pack. Then, the tentacle pokémon quickly felt a barrage of attacks from charizard, wartortle, prinplup, spheal, and togekiss. The attacks hardly did anything except defeating a couple unlucky tentacruel. The poison type pokémon then turned on the group, all jointly launching what looked to be sludge bomb at the pack.

Prinplup collapsed into the water before diving down and using drill peck from under a tentacruel. Wartortle attempted to use skull bash, but got caught up in a forceful bind in between two other tentacruel. Togekiss and charizard flew through the air, swerving around the inky black sludge bomb.

"Spheal, use aurora beam!" Brittany commanded. "Wartortle, use—oh no! Return!" She shouted as wartortle floated up to the surface, having been hit in the chest by a poison jab. "Thank you for helping. We'll get you some help soon."

"Brittany, I can go on ahead to Circus Island and take wartortle with me." Fay offered, lowering himself and charizard.

"That's fine. We'll be alright. Plus, I don't want the others to get hurt and then not have any help." She said, watching as prinplup was having difficulty, along with spheal. Azumarill—too frightened to help—simply tread there, watching nervously. Moments later, prinplup was thrown out of the water and hit with a sludge bomb in midair before falling back into the water just in front of gyarados.

"Return, buddy." Niko said, thrusting out his pokéball. Frowning, he looked to the others, all of whom were still trying to fight. Togekiss was weaving through, dive-bombing a few tentacruel with what looked like extremespeed. Charizard was blowing out a flamethrower at each of them, which hardly seemed to scare them. Gyarados launched off a couple hyper beams, but the attacks didn't seem to last long, due to the atrocious pokémon having less energy than usual.

Which left spheal. The ball pokémon kept hurling ice balls supported by water gun and aurora beams at the tentacruel, distracting them long enough for azumarill to get back to JJ and the others. Brittany was impressed at how fast spheal was moving and attacking. Then, as spheal was about to shoot another aurora beam, he got hit by a sludge bomb, falling backwards into the water, rolling slowly.

"Spheal!" Brittany shouted, leaping off of gyarados and into the water. First wartortle got hurt, and now spheal. She wasn't about to tolerate it anymore. She sank down towards spheal and grabbed him before floating back up. Once she got to the surface, she saw the tentacruel swimming towards her. Some of them fell to charizard, togekiss, and gyarados, but some still remained.

Suddenly, a tentacruel got close, and quickly raised a tentacle to jab Brittany with. Just as it was close enough, spheal leapt out of his trainer's arms and tackled tentacruel, forcing it to withdraw the tentacle, grab spheal, and shove him into the water just as a white glow erupted from underneath the surface.

Brittany watched as spheal suddenly began to grow to a slightly bigger size. He was no longer just a ball—but instead more of the shape of an actual seal. His body was more fleshed out; his flippers and tail were longer. Lastly, he had a pair of white whiskers emanating from under his beady black eyes.

" _Sealeo, the ball roll pokémon. Ice and water type. It habitually spins things on its nose. By doing so, it learns textures and odors_."

Sealeo dove deep into the water before launching back towards the surface like a rocket, launching the tentacruel high into the air. He then sent out an aurora beam that hit the bottom of the poison type, freezing it as it quickly descended back to the ground.

At the sight of this, the other tentacruel looked at sealeo, and then charizard, gyarados, and togekiss, and suddenly fled, leaving the group alone. The ball roll pokémon turned to Brittany, who by this time had gotten back onto gyarados with the help of togekiss and her friends.

"You did great, sealeo." Brittany finally said with a smile. "I'm really proud of you. And so is azumarill."

The aquarabbit pokémon nodded, swimming over to sealeo and hugging him affectionately. The two continued to swim through the water for the rest of the day. Fay went on ahead to heal up wartortle and prinplup, leaving the group on gyarados for several more hours before Circus Island came within sight. It wasn't too difficult to see the massive tent off in the distance. Niko and Lauren immediately noticed it as the Battle Arcade.

"Ready?" Lauren asked, leaning in to Niko's back.

"Of course." He said confidently, forcing a smile from his girlfriend.


	13. Pokémon roulette!

**Episode 13: Pokémon roulette!**

"Is wartortle alright?" Brittany asked as Fay handed her a pokéball.

"Just fine. Niko, so is prinplup. He just needs a bit of rest, but he seems to be doing great otherwise." Fay said, turning to Niko and handing him a pokéball as well.

"Thanks, Fay. I appreciate that." Niko said. He then turned to Lauren, who was on the phone talking to her father back in Canalave City. He didn't want to intrude, and so turned and followed Brittany and Fay to a booth to relax for a bit.

They had just arrived on Circus Island, a small land mass in the middle of route 230 whose sole purpose is to host the Battle Arcade and all of the employers there. And while it was a small town, the group only had one interest in mind—the fifth frontier facility, and hopefully the fourth Frontier Print. After defeating the brain here, Niko and Lauren would set themselves up to rematch Palmer in the Fight Area.

Once Lauren was finished with her conversation, she walked over to join the group at their booth. Sitting down, she looked up at Niko and smiled cheerfully.

"How was the call?" Niko asked, not only curious but also asking for the sake of conversation.

"Fine. He was just wondering how I was doing, and that he's proud of me." She said, looking down at the table now. "He also wanted to know what I'm doing next. I told him I don't know yet." In that moment, Lauren looked a little melancholic.

"Well, we'll figure it out after we beat Palmer, alright?" Niko replied with a seemingly genuine smile. Lauren nodded, smiling and leaning in to Niko.

That evening, the group showed up to the Battle Arcade after relaxing in the Pokémon Center for a couple of hours. Like they noticed hours earlier, the facility was just a massive tent with articular domes. As they entered, the group noticed that the facility was dimly lit with strange patterns on the walls and floors, sort of resembling a circus tent. In the center of the facility was a large battlefield with the shape of a pokéball in the center. Only instead of the usual beige-colored field, this one was half red, and half black. On the sides of the tent were a litany of slot machines and other sorts of arcade games.

"Hello! Welcome to the Battle Arcade! How may I help you?" A young man in a suit said as he quickly approached the group.

"Hi, I'm Niko, and this is Lauren. We're here to challenge the Frontier Brain."

"Ah. Of course. The Arcade Star is free at the moment. Will you be battling together or individually?"

"Individually."

"Of course. Let me confirm her availability, then. One moment." He said before spinning around on his foot and walking away.

The group stood there, marveling at the arcade setting. At one point, JJ wanted to go and play some of the games, but Fay halted him. "Not right now. After Niko and Lauren win." He said, tugging on JJ's t-shirt.

"Fine." The curly blonde said in an oddly childish tone. Just as he said this, the person who greeted them returned.

"Arcade Star Dahlia accepts your challenges. Who will go first?" Niko stepped forward. "Very well. Niko, right? Please give me the three pokémon that you wish to compete with."

"Oh. Really?" Niko asked.

"Indeed. These battles are for show. And the unique style of battle requires it." He said. Niko then hesitated, pulling out three pokéballs and handing them to the man. "Excellent. I will be right back." He said, before taking them to one end of the field. There was a massive monitor that displayed 16 different squares and six pokéballs, three on each side. Suddenly, Niko's three pokémon showed up on the left side, and on the right, were a dusknoir, medicham, and ludicolo. The man came back and handed Niko his pokémon and then walked back to the middle of the field, typically where a judge stood.

Just then, the lights all dimmed and focused on the opposite end of the battlefield. Out of seemingly nowhere, a tall woman with vine-like black hair, a yellow long-sleeve crop top, fitting blue pants, and yellow heels appeared. She began dancing, as if listening to some pop song.

"You!" She said, pointing to Niko while dancing, and apparently singing as well. "No need to worry. Let chance do what it does. Like surprises from the game board, life goes through twists and turns. No need to worry. Things will go as they will. But, enough of that. I know one thing for certain. You have arrived here not merely because you were lucky. Let us not waste any time. I wish to test your skills myself!" She pulled out a pokéball. "I accept your challenge!"

Niko grinned as he pulled out a pokéball as well. His friends took their seats in the stands, just as several strangers did the same. It was clear to them that being able to witness a match with the Arcade Star was a privilege in and of itself.

"Dusknoir, I choose you!"

"Magmar, let's go!" Niko shouted, summoning the spitfire pokémon for his first official battle. Just as he did so, both pokémon froze for a moment as the monitor above the judge lit up. "What the—?"

"Ah, child, you don't know anything about the Battle Arcade, do you?" Dahlia asked with a smirk. Niko shook his head in response. "Each battle is three-on-three, but there's a twist. Every time a new pokémon is sent out, the roulette wheel is spun on the monitor. "She motioned her hand to the monitor, which instantly showed an image of a wheel with red, purple, and gray spaces on it. "The wheel will either land on a red, purple, or gray space. If it lands on red, then my pokémon are affected. If it lands on purple, then yours are affected. If it lands on gray, then the field is affected. Understand?" Niko nodded. "Very well. Let us spin the wheel, and see where we land!"

The wheel on the monitor began to spin rapidly, the three colors merging seemingly merging into one. Eventually, it began to slow down and ultimately landed on red. Dahlia raised an eyebrow with a look of interest, rather than concern. Then, a list of afflictions appeared, and they began lighting up, one by one, until it eventually landed on one.

Suddenly, dusknoir fell asleep.

"Ah, this'll be interesting." Dahlia said, striking a pose. "Let's begin!"

"Magmar, sunny day!" Niko commanded, and magmar looked up to the ceiling and raised his hands to the side. Suddenly, the dimmed lights became irrelevant as the room brightened significantly. "Now, flamethrower!"

The spitfire pokémon unleashed a jet of flame that successfully hit the sleeping dusknoir, who couldn't do much to defend itself. Magmar kept this up for some time until he and Niko noticed blue flames emitting from dusknoir. Suddenly the flamethrower was broken and dusknoir was awake, shooting out blue flames everywhere.

"Shadow punch!" Dahlia commanded, thrusting her hand forward. The gripper pokémon punched forward, shooting a spectral fist at its opponent.

"Fire punch to counter!" Niko commanded. Magmar retaliated, the sunny day empowering him further. He met the shadow punch and easily repelled it before charging forward towards dusknoir. "Fire punch again!"

"Trick room!" Dahlia commanded, and suddenly a large light blue rectangle with light blue walls and ceiling appeared on the field, all transparent. As soon as it appeared, the room disappeared again. Niko then noticed magmar slow down significantly, while dusknoir moved at the speed magmar previously did, hurling shadow punches left and right, knocking the spitfire pokémon backwards and onto the ground.

"Magmar, flamethrower!" Niko commanded. Luckily, sunny day was still in effect. He could still count on that. Just as dusknoir launched a shadow punch at magmar while the latter was still on the ground. Magmar took the hit before unleashing a powerful jet of flame at dusknoir, engulfing it in fire and causing it float around frantically. "Now, finish it off with fire punch!"

"Dusknoir, shadow punch!" Dahlia shouted, but it was no use. Even when slowed by the trick room, magmar managed to land a powerful fire punch on dusknoir, knocking it into the wall of the trick room and causing it to reappear briefly.

"Dusknoir is unable to battle, magmar wins!" The judge declared. "Arcade Star Dahlia will now send out her next pokémon!"

"Medicham, I choose you!" Dahlia commanded. As soon as medicham appeared, the roulette appeared once more and began to spin. This time, it landed on a gray tile, and then a new list of conditions appeared.

Suddenly, a sandstorm erupted.

"Medicham, use zen headbutt!" Dahlia shouted. Through the sand, the meditation pokémon charged forward, its head erupting with light blue sparks.

"Magma, flamethrower!" Niko shouted. However, he noticed the fire was weaker than before. _The sunny day is gone…_ He thought to himself. In the moment, though, it didn't occur to him that he could change the weather.

Nevertheless, medicham charged through the flamethrower and hit magmar, knocking him backwards through the sand. The spitfire pokémon shook his head and brushed sand off of his body before getting back up. Medicham charged forward once more to attack, but magmar was ready this time. He launched a fire punch at medicham's head. But just like with the flamethrower, the attack was weaker, and the zen headbutt hit regardless, knocking magmar to the ground once again.

"Magmar is unable to battle, medicham wins!" The judge declared. "Challenger Niko will now send out his second pokémon!"

"Magmar, return. You did good, buddy. I'm really proud of you." He grinned, looking up to see the pokémon Dahlia had. Noticing her third pokémon was a ludicolo, he knew that he needed to save one of his pokémon for it. This information made his decision to use his second pokémon easier. "Prinplup, I choose you!"

Just as the penguin landed on the field, the roulette reappeared and the sandstorm dissipated. The wheel spun a third time, this time landing on a purple tile. Like with red and gray, another list of afflictions appeared.

Prinplup cried out as he briefly lit on fire, leaving several burn marks on his flippers and back.

"It's okay, prinplup. We can win this still. Use hydro pump!"

"Medicham, zen headbutt!" Dahlia shouted. The meditation pokémon charged forward, running through the hydro pump and still hitting prinplup, who managed to land a drill peck as medicham collided with him.

Both pokémon fell to the floor, prinplup already exhausted after using a couple of attacks. Niko commanded him to use drill peck once more.

"Endure!" Dahlia shouted. A white aura surrounded medicham as it took the drill peck while still standing up. "Now, reversal!"

"Block it with metal claw!" Niko commanded. Several small orbs surrounded medicham as it tackled prinplup, launching it across the field and well past Niko. Prinplup slowly got back up before lighting on fire once more. The burn was taking effect. "You can do this. You're tough, prinplup! Use hydro pump!"

"Medicham, zen headbutt!"

Prinplup charged forward until he got back on the field, using a powerful hydro pump up close on medicham. This time, the psychic type didn't run through the attack, and instead shot backwards before rolling across the field.

"Drill peck!" Niko commanded. Prinplup charged forward and landed once final attack on medicham, who was unable to get back up.

"Medicham is unable to battle, prinplup wins!" The judge declared. "Arcade Star Dahlia will now send out her final pokémon!"

As Niko expected, Dahlia summoned her ludicolo to the stage. As soon as the carefree pokémon appeared, the wheel spun for a fourth time. This time, it landed on a gray space, and forced another trick room to appear.

"Ludicolo, swords dance!" Dahlia commanded.

"Use drill peck!" Niko commanded. Prinplup rushed forward, his beak elongating. However, his opponent suddenly commanded a torrent of green leaves to shoot towards prinplup, hitting the penguin and knocking him onto his back. "Prinplup!"

"Use drain punch!" Dahlia commanded. A swirling white and beige aura surrounded ludicolo's fist as he slammed it down onto prinplup, absorbing the penguin's energy. Ludicolo then took a step back as prinplup lay there, unable to battle.

"Prinplup is unable to battle, ludicolo wins! Challenger Niko will send out his final pokémon!" The judge declared.

"Return, prinplup. Great job, buddy. Now, let's finish this. Staraptor, I choose you!"

"I knew that was your strategy. Saving staraptor for last. Well done." Dahlia smirked. The wheel then appeared once more, this time landing on a red tile, and then suddenly ludicolo was paralyzed. "Oh. Well then, that'll make things a little more difficult. No need to worry though, ludicolo. We'll still win this."

"Staraptor, aerial ace!" Niko commanded. The predator pokémon then rose into the air, flying in a backwards circle before diving down at ludicolo, white tendrils emanating from his beak. Like usual, Niko began to notice blue sparks also emitting from staraptor, but thought nothing of it for the moment as the flying type crashed into his stunned opponent.

As staraptor returned over to his end of the field, flying above Niko, ludicolo began to move again. _They aren't making this easy for us_ , Niko thought to himself. He then commanded staraptor to use quick attack while ludicolo was using swords dance.

This time, however, the blue sparks became more apparent. Niko looked up with awe as staraptor was completely engulfed in light blue energy, sparking every which way as he crashed into ludicolo, who managed to land a drain punch in the process.

"Brave bird…interesting choice." Dahlia observed. "Didn't seem to do you too much good, considering ludicolo sapped more of your energy." She smirked. "Use waterfall!"

Ludicolo began to glow bright blue as he jumped upwards, slamming a palm into staraptor while begin covered in a coat of water, launching the two upwards.

"Double team!" Niko commanded. Staraptor quickly duplicated himself to evade the rest of the attack before flying around the field, high up in the air. "Now, aerial ace!"

Staraptor dove back down once more, hitting ludicolo in the chest and dragging the carefree pokémon across the field before knocking it onto its back. Staraptor then returned to Niko's side as ludicolo tried getting back up.

"Ludicolo is unable to battle, staraptor wins! The victory goes to the challenger, Niko!" The judge declared. The crowd—including Niko's friends—erupted in applause.

"Great job, staraptor. And it looks like you learned a new move, too!" He said as staraptor also smiled. Dahlia then nodded approvingly, walking into some backroom, presumably to heal her pokémon. This was the first time Niko saw his challenger doing so since battling Palmer back in the Fight Area.

He then returned staraptor and proceeded to join his friends in the stands, only to see Lauren standing there as usual.

"Congrats." She said softly, hugging Niko and kissing his cheek. "You killed it."

"And so will you." Niko said, returning the hug before heading off to join their friends. Like with before, the judge took Lauren's three pokémon and entered them into some machine under the monitor. Dahlia's team didn't seem to change, though, and only the left side of the monitor changed to display Lauren's three pokémon.

Once she was given her pokéballs back, she pocketed two of them and waited for Dahlia to appear. She looked up at her three new opponents, who were arranged in no particular order, and smiled.

"Alright then. Well, Lauren, I hope for this battle to be just as exciting as the previous. Dusknoir, I choose you!"

"Haunter, let's go!" Lauren shouted, also summoning her ghost type. Once more, the wheel began spinning, eventually landed on purple. Suddenly, haunter found himself unable to move.

"Dusknoir, shadow punch!" Dahlia commanded. The gripper pokémon then shot out a spectral punch, and repeated the attack while haunter continued to take each hit in succession. Lauren grit her teeth—this was not going well, and they just began the fight.

Haunter, who through his paralysis remained in the air, floated down to the ground from the constant onslaught of shadow punches. Eventually, Lauren noticed him trying to move; the paralysis was wearing off quicker than expected.

"Fight through it, haunter! Use dark pulse!"

"Shadow punch!" Dahlia shouted. Dusknoir attempted to launched another spectral fist, only for it to be destroyed by the oncoming nexus of dark energy that haunter focused at his opponent. Dusknoir, hit in the chest, was launched backwards, rolling through the air as haunter began his own barrage of shadow punches.

"Now, hypnosis!" Lauren commanded.

"Will-o-wisp!" Dahlia directed. The blue flames were exchanged for the red hypnotic rings as dusknoir collapsed to the ground, asleep, while haunter took a nasty burn from the blue fire. However, despite the burn, haunter and Lauren had an advantage.

"Shadow punch!" Lauren commanded. Just as haunter launched a spectral punch at his opponent, he lit up on fire; the burn was taking effect. Lauren grit her teeth again. "Use dark pulse now!"

Haunter continued to wail on dusknoir, each attack successfully hitting. However, it didn't take long for dusknoir to awaken. The gripper pokémon unleashed a flurry of shadow punches. Haunter parried with his own spectral punches, but also mixed in a dark pulse into it, which hit dusknoir square in the chest, knocking the ghost type over.

Haunter began to pant heavily. The match was more exhausting than normal. Once more, he lit on fire and collapsed to the ground just as dusknoir did.

"Dusknoir and haunter are both unable to battle! Challenger Lauren and Arcade Star Dahlia will now send out their next pokémon!" The judge declared.

"Infernape, I choose you!" Lauren shouted.

"Medicham, let's go!" Dahlia said. As soon as medicham entered the field, the wheel reappeared on the monitor and began to spin. This time, it landed on red, and medicham suddenly caught fire, leaving a burn mark on it. "Zen headbutt!" Dahlia shouted.

"Infernape, mach punch!" Lauren commanded. To meet the meditation pokémon, medicham charged forward and slammed her fist into medicham's light blue sparkling head. The impact of the collision rippled across the field. "Flare blitz!"

"Endure!" Dahlia shouted. Just as medicham was about to use endure, the burn ignited once more, forcing the psychic type to fall to its knee, but nevertheless use endure as infernape engulfed it once more in fire. "Now, reversal!"

"Dodge and use blast burn!" Lauren commanded. Infernape jumped backwards a few times, dodging the orbs of reversal before slamming her fist into the ground. A wave erupted underneath the field before bursting upwards on medicham, further covering the meditation pokémon in blue fire.

"Medicham…zen headbutt!" Dahlia shouted. Medicham lowered its head and charged towards its opponent. Meanwhile, infernape stood still, awaiting Lauren's command and resting from the blast burn.

"Mach punch!" Lauren commanded. Infernape attempted to use mach punch, but zen headbutt ultimately hit first, knocking the flame pokémon backwards and onto the ground. "Alright, fine. Use flare blitz this time!"

Infernape covered herself in orange fire as she burst forward at an exhausted medicham, who still felt the effects of the burn. This time, the attack succeeded in hitting medicham, launching the psychic type across the field. It landed at Dahlia's feet, defeated.

"Medicham is unable to battle, infernape wins! Dahlia will now send out her final pokémon!" The judge declared.

"Ludicolo, let's go!" Dahlia commanded. As soon as ludicolo entered the field, the roulette began to spin again. Now, it landed on purple, and infernape instantly collapsed onto her face, sound asleep. Dahlia smirked. "Use waterfall!"

Blue water surrounded ludicolo as the carefree pokémon charged across the field towards infernape, who was still asleep. Moments later, ludicolo slammed into its opponent with the full weight of its body. The water was enough to wake infernape up, but she was significantly weakened upon awakening.

"Infernape, mach punch!" Lauren shouted. The flame pokémon slowly stood up and, fist glowing white, lunged forward and slammed into ludicolo, who responded with a familiar white and tan swirling fist, known as drain punch. Both pokémon repelled each other, only it was ludicolo who remained standing in the aftermath.

"Infernape is unable to battle, ludicolo wins! Challenger Lauren will now send out her third and final pokémon!" The judge declared.

"Slowking, I choose you!" Lauren called out.

For the last time, the wheel began to spin, ultimately landing on red. Just as quickly, a final condition was chosen at random, and ludicolo stood completely still; it was frozen.

"Slowking, use nasty plot!" Lauren shouted, knowing that ludicolo couldn't do anything. "And again!" Lauren commanded. Each time, slowking smirked at the frozen ludicolo, figuring out a strategy of his own. After nearly a minute of strategizing, slowking turned to Lauren and nodded. "Alright, then. Let's finish this, slowking! Use psychic!"

Slowking's eyes started to glow light purple as he picked up ludicolo with his mind and tossed the carefree pokémon across the field. Lauren asked him to repeat the attack, this time in the opposite direction.

"Now, zen headbutt!" Lauren shouted, thrusting her hand forward. Slowking lowered his head as his shell began to release light blue sparks. "Now!"

Slowking burst forward towards ludicolo, who stood still. Upon contact, the zen headbutt broke ludicolo free from the ice, but knocking it backwards nevertheless.

"Ludicolo, use razor leaf!" Dahlia shouted. Ludicolo got up slowly, but swiftly summoned a torrent of leaves, all of which struck slowking, knocking it down to one knee. "And swords dance now!"

"Psychic!" Lauren commanded. Slowking's eyes began to glow again, and ludicolo was picked up into the air by slowking's powerful mind. "Throw it around!" Slowking obliged, launching ludicolo into the air before letting go. "And now let's win this! Use zen headbutt!"

The shell began to sparkle a light blue color as slowking charged towards where ludicolo was to land, and then leapt into the air with an unusual amount of energy, colliding midair with ludicolo and sending both of them back to the ground. Ludicolo collapsed onto the ground as slowking stood over it victoriously.

"Ludicolo is unable to battle, slowking wins! And the victory goes to Lauren!" The judge declared.

Lauren held out her arms as slowking approached her, embracing her as well. "I'm proud of you, slowking."

"Slow…" The royal pokémon said softly before being returned to his pokéball. The lights completely turned on now, significantly brightening up the room. Lauren turned to see Niko and her friends approach from the right, and the Dahlia from in front of her.

Niko stood beside her as Dahlia withdrew two small gold pieces, each with a tent engraved on them. She smirked. "How fabulous of you both! Your love of Pokémon shone through, and, in turn, your Pokémon believed in you. That is why you handled everything thrown your way splendidly." She handed them the gold pieces. "As proof of your victory, I award you with the Arcade Prints."

Niko and Lauren both took the pieces, looked at each other, and smiled eagerly.

"Now, the closest facilities to Circus Island are the Battle Castle in the Resort Area, and the Battle Tower in the Fight Area. I wish you the best on your quest!" She said, laughing at her own rhyme. "Have a wonderful day!"

"Thanks, Dahlia!" Niko said, waving to the Arcade Star as she danced away.

Niko and Lauren, along with their friends, exited the Battle Arcade after succumbing to JJ's need to play the games. Niko in particular wanted to enjoy himself, but his mind was preoccupied—his final frontier battle was next. Soon, he and Lauren would have their rematch against the Tower Tycoon.


	14. The dynamic duo!

**Episode 14: The dynamic duo!**

The trip back to the Fight Area didn't take long, and it was hardly eventful. In the aftermath of Niko and Lauren's victory against the Arcade Star, Dahlia, the group set off for their final destination—the Fight Area—the following morning. Once more, they rode on gyarados and Fay rode on charizard, and the entire journey took a day and a half.

While on the journey, Niko sat there with Lauren sitting in front of him. Once more, it was an ideal time to reflect on his journey thus far. But most importantly, he had to focus on Palmer. Last time, what defeated him was the Tower Tycoon's dragonite, who knew the move dragon dance. To get around that, Niko needed to be swift enough, and to land a powerful enough attack quickly enough. At least, that's what he believed at the time.

Lauren went through a largely similar thought process. Only she had by now figured out a way to get around the dragon dance. It was all a matter of being able to land her planned counterattack. But more importantly, she wondered how Niko was feeling. Throughout their adventure on Battle Island, he seemed off. Often times, he wouldn't talk for long periods of time. And whenever he seemed happy, it would sour almost as quickly by some external factor. She hoped that—whatever the result in their rematch—they could stay together and figure out the next steps in their relationship.

The following day, they made it to the Fight Area, and went straight to the Pokémon Center to rest up Fay's pokémon, as well as eat up before training for a bit. Even if Niko and Lauren felt better about their chances, they both needed some time to work with their pokémon before the rematch. And so they did, walking out onto the practice battlefield.

"Alright guys!" Niko said, summoning his full team. "We're about to face the final Frontier Brain. A few of you have faced him before. He's the one with the dragonite." The ones who had faced Palmer previously shuddered a little at the thought. "Exactly. Well, we can do it this time. We've fought four other Frontier Brains, and beat each one of them. Plus, we've also battled Palmer. We know exactly what he's going to use, and his strategy." He smiled. "All of you are capable of beating that dragonite. But to be sure, let's train for a bit, alright?"

He and his pokémon then began working on their moves for the next hour or so. Lauren's did the same after she talked with them. For the most part, there wasn't much left for either her or Niko to teach their teams—they had peaked as far as moves were concerned, it was all about speed and strength at that point.

Brittany, JJ, and Fay watched from the bench. After a few minutes, they too got up and began training with their pokémon, except for Fay, who had to go back inside to do some work for Professor Oak.

As he walked in, he noticed two tall, older-looking men approach Nurse Joy's desk at the front. One of them had spiky yellow hair, the other a red afro. As he passed by, he casually waved to them, paying no attention otherwise. He then sat in a booth and got to work, casually looking over to the men presumably healing their pokémon.

"Alright, Flint, now can we get going…?" The yellow-haired man said in a bored tone.

"Nah, Volkner. I want to meet with the Tower Tycoon first. It's been a while since we've talked." The man named Flint said in a calm, yet excited tone. "Buttt…if you want to go back to Sinnoh, you're more than welcome to."

"No, it's fine. I've got nothing better to do, anyways."

"No challengers at the gym?"

"Nah," Volkner said, waving a hand away. "It's summer. I usually don't get too many of them this time of year."

"Fair enough. Alright, we won't be long." Flint said, picking up his pokéballs and turning to leave with Volkner. As he did so, he paused, looking out the window to the practice battlefield. "Except…wait…"

"What's up?" Volkner said lazily, turning to the practice battlefield. "Oh. It's those kids."

"You know them?" Fay finally said, attracting the attention of Flint and Volkner.

"Know them? They beat me." Volkner said. " _You_ know them?"

"I travelled with them. Name's Fay." He said, getting up to shake Flint's and Volkner's hands.

"Volkner. I'm the gym leader of Sunyshore City. This is—"

"Name's Flint! I'm a member of the Sinnoh Elite 4!" Flint said excitedly, leaving Fay impressed. "I know that gang because we met back in Sunyshore City. That kid, Niko, is quite something. Just a lot to learn, though."

"You're right." Fay said, unsure of what to say next. Flint easily filled in the gap.

"Are they busy right now?" Fay shook his head. "Great! Volkner, let's go!"

"Go and do _what_?" Volkner asked, yawning.

"Just hang out with them!" Flint said. He then walked out onto the practice battlefield to greet the group. Volkner—and then Fay—ended up joining him. "Hey guys!" Flint said with a happy wave of his hand. "What's hot?"

"Oh, hey Flint." Niko said, turning to look with surprise at the Elite 4 member. "Just training to take on the Battle Tower."

"Woah, what!?" Flint said, taking a step back in surprise. "You guys are taking on the Battle Frontier? Incredible!" He said enthusiastically. "How many prints do you have?"

"Four. Palmer will be our fifth." Niko said, turning to venusaur. "Wait…what are you two doing here?"

"Oh, I'm here on League business. Volkner's here just to tag along. He doesn't have too many challengers during the summer, and why not spend that time with ME on Battle Island?" Flint said, eying Volkner eagerly. Fay then popped up behind the gym leader. "Oh. And we just met your friend. You all travel together?" Niko nodded. "Wow, you popular guy. Anyways, how's your rampardos doing? I saw what happened, and just wanted to check in."

"Rampardos is doing better. Which reminds me…I want to call my parents soon, just need to focus first on Palmer first."

"Ah. No worries! Just checkin'!" Flint then turned to Volkner again, and winked. "Hey Niko, how would you like to battle us? You know, as a warm-up for your battle against Palmer?"

"Against who? You or Volkner?"

"Why not both?" Flint shrugged.

"Well…who'd be my partner, then?" Niko asked. He turned to his friends. Just as Lauren was about to suggest that she partner, Niko turned to Fay. "Hey Fay, why not you and me? It's been a while since I've seen your pokémon in a real battle."

Fay raised his eyebrow, especially after seeing Lauren's apparent interest in wanting to battle alongside Niko. Nevertheless, he shrugged. "Sure, let's go."

"Great!" Niko said. "How many pokémon are we using?"

"Two each." Flint said, and the group made way for the four trainers to take their spots on the field. Flint and Volkner on one side—Niko and Fay on the other. "Ready? Begin. Flareon, I choose you!"

"Jolteon, let's go!" Volkner shouted.

"Torterra, I choose you!" Niko commanded.

"Kingdra, you're up!" Fay shouted. "Use whirlpool on flareon!"

Just as the dragon pokémon conjured a powerful whirlpool, Niko commanded torterra to use leaf storm on jolteon. Meanwhile, jolteon used pin missile on torterra. Flareon used overheat on torterra as well. Luckily, the torrent of leaves blocked the pin missile and hit jolteon without much effort, and the overheat's power was minimized by leaf storm. Then a swirling pool of water hit flareon, engulfing the flame pokémon in it and launching it high into the air.

"Flareon, giga impact on kingdra!" Flint commanded.

"Jolteon, charge beam on kingdra!" Volkner commanded.

"Kingdra, dragon pulse on jolteon!"

"Torterra, razor leaf!" Niko commanded. All four attacks commenced once more. Flareon, from midair, charged downwards at kingdra, as if running through the air. Meanwhile, all attacks focused on jolteon, as a powerful beam of draconic energy collided with a charge beam in the middle of the field, only disrupted when flareon impacted with kingdra, knocking the dragon pokémon to the ground.

While flareon was recovering from the attack, and jolteon was charging forward to use quick attack, Niko turned to Fay, and then to torterra. "Do it." Fay said. "Kingdra, leap into the air, now!"

"Thanks, Fay. Torterra, use earthquake!" Niko commanded, dropping to one knee and thrusting his hand onto the ground. Suddenly the battlefield began to shake. Kingdra was briefly unaffected as he leapt into the air to dodge the move. Flareon—who was recovering from the giga impact—and jolteon were both hit by the move, and seemed to have difficulty dealing with it. "Now, energy ball on jolteon!"

"Kingdra, dragon pulse on flareon!" Fay commanded. Both attacks shot forward, crossing across the field and hitting their intended targets. Both Volkner and Flint attempted to use moves, but they weren't quick enough. Flareon and jolteon jointly fainted.

"Flareon and jolteon are unable to battle!" JJ, who acted as the referee, declared. Flint and Volkner returned their pokémon, turned to one another, and smirked.

"Magmortar, I choose you!" Flint shouted.

"Electivire, you're up!" Volkner shouted. "Thunderpunch on kingdra!"

"Magmortar, flamethrower on torterra!" Flint commanded. A powerful, light orange jet of fire struck torterra directly on the head, lighting the continent pokémon on fire. Meanwhile, the thunderbolt pokémon charged forward, slamming an electrified fist onto kingdra just as the dragon pokémon shot out dragon pulse. However, the force of the thunderpunch knocked dragon pulse back towards kingdra and, at a close range, created an explosion that knocked kingdra backwards, past the field and into the wall separating the Pokémon Center from the rest of the Fight Area.

"Kingdra is unable to battle!" JJ declared.

"Return, kingdra. Well done." Fay then searched for another pokémon. "Dragonair, I choose you!"

Meanwhile, torterra collapsed from the flamethrower, forcing Niko to return him as well. As JJ declared torterra unable to battle, Niko considered who to use now. The choice, in that moment, seemed obvious. "Magmar, I choose you!"

Flint raised an eyebrow. "Oh? Since when did you catch one of those?"

"Since I've been here, actually. Magmar, sunny day!" Niko commanded.

"Oh, Niko…" Brittany said, shaking her head.

"I think it's better for him, considering the type advantages magmar and dragonair both have." Lauren said. Brittany thought about it for a moment, and then nodded in agreement.

"Dragonair, use dragon rush!" Fay commanded. The dragon pokémon surrounded himself with a light purple aura. White streaks surrounded it as a dragon-shaped energy emerged out of it and slammed into magmortar just as the battlefield suddenly got brighter.

"Magmar, fire punch on electivire!" Niko commanded. The spitfire pokémon charged forward, right fist on fire as he quickly met electivire's electrified thunderpunch. The obviously more powerful pokémon—electivire—quickly subdued magmar, knocking him to the ground. "Flamethrower!"

"Brick break!" Volkner shouted. This time, the flamethrower seemed to be doing damage due to sunny day, but the thunderbolt pokémon seemed to succeed all the same, dropping its hand down onto magmar, knocking him down a second time.

Meanwhile, the dragon rush met magmortar's hyper beam, thus repelling the attack. Fay then asked dragonair to use dragonbreath this time, knowing that magmortar needed time to recharge. Much to his surprise, the blast pokémon used another hyper beam in succession, surprising Fay and dragonair and hitting the dragon type with the orange beam of energy.

"Now, solarbeam!" Flint commanded. Out of its other hand-cannon, magmortar unleashed a bright green jet of energy, slamming into dragonair and knocking it into the ground.

"Magmar, use flamethrower again!" Niko shouted as magmar finally managed to get back up. The attack hit electivire, knocking the beast-like electric type backwards. However, while it affected electivire, it didn't seem to deter either it nor Volkner, who commanded the thunderbolt pokémon to use giga impact.

Electivire blew through the flamethrower and slammed into magmar with the full force of its body, launching magmar backwards and nearly hitting Lauren and Brittany in the stands. Magmar collapsed onto the ground, unable to get back up.

"Magmar is unable to battle!" JJ declared.

Niko ran over to the spitfire pokémon, who slowly got back up, not wanting to look at Niko. "It's okay, buddy. You did your best." Niko said. Magmar slowly nodded in understanding. They both looked at Fay and dragonair, who tried to fend off magmortar and electivire on their own.

"Dragon rush!" Fay commanded. Just as the dragon pokémon was about to use his attack, magmortar used one final hyper beam, and electivire used fire punch—aided by sunny day—to finish off dragonair before he could even use his attack.

"Dragonair is unable to battle! Electivire and magmortar are the winners! The victory goes to Volkner and Flint!" JJ declared.

"Return, dragonair. It was nice to battle again, wasn't it?" Fay said with a smile. "Niko, that was a good battle. I really enjoyed it."

"Same here, buddy." Niko said, turning to magmar, who continued to look down in shame.

While Volkner approached their former opponents, Flint rushed back into the Pokémon Center for whatever reason. "He's getting something, I think." Volkner said, looking after his more excitable friend. "Anyways, that was a good battle. As always, Niko, you still have things to learn, but you're on the right path. Fay, I don't know you, but you battled nicely as well."

Volkner then went silent as Flint turned back up again, this time holding a red box that fit in both of his palms. He walked up to Niko and magmar, and held it out.

"Niko, if there's one thing I know, it's how to train fire types. Specifically a magmar. I noticed how it felt after losing and, trust me, I've been there with my own." He then placed the red box in Niko's hands. "This is a magmarizer. It's packed with magma energy, and loved specifically by magmar." He turned to Niko's magmar. "It's for you, if you want it."

"What does he do with it?" Niko asked, looking down at the magmarizer. He could definitely see magma sitting in the middle through what looked like a glass hole in the center.

Flint winked. "You'll know. Anyways, Volkner and I have to get going. It was great seeing you all again. Niko, Lauren, best of luck against Palmer. I'll let him know you guys are coming for him!" He held his hand out, which Niko clasped.

"Thanks, Flint." Fay, Lauren, Brittany, and JJ all did the same.

"Niko," Volkner said. "Good luck."

Niko thanked the gym leader, as did Fay and Lauren. Then, the duo left the practice battlefield, leaving the group alone as the sun began to set.

"Now, I just have to figure out what this does." Niko said, holding the magmarizer in his hands. He then felt Lauren grab his arm.

"You will. We will." She said with a warm smile. Niko returned it, and led the group inside the Pokémon Center to heal up his pokémon. Soon, he and Lauren would face Palmer for their fifth and final Frontier Print.


	15. A trade

**Episode 15: A trade**

The evening after Niko and Fay lost to Flint and Volkner, he and Lauren lay there in bed, waiting to fall asleep. Niko in particular had a lot on his mind. For starters, he wanted to figure out the purpose of the magmarizer, particularly its relationship to magmar. Since the battle, magmar has been holding the red box and refused to let go of it, even to eat. The obsession with the box was quite clear, and Niko felt it was on him to figure it out.

Besides that problem, his rematch with Palmer kept moving through his mind, engulfing his thoughts. He knew that he needed to win this time—losing a second time would be embarrassing, and he wouldn't know how exactly to feel about it. Lastly, he started to wonder what his next steps would be. It seemed like all of his friends were equally uncertain about their futures, what with Brittany now the Top Coordinator in Sinnoh, and JJ wanting to see Maizie again. He had no idea where his relationship with Lauren stood. He felt distant from her since Lily of the Valley, and wondered if she felt the same. He hoped that she didn't. Niko liked having her around. A lot.

Lauren also had multiple thoughts on her mind. One in particular was her future. Like Niko, she felt anxious about the next steps, and hoped that their relationship could stand regardless of what they wanted to do next. Ideally, she wanted to continue travelling with Niko, and hoped that he felt the same.

Yet, she wondered if she could continue to be around Niko if he kept keeping his feelings from her. Wasn't that the point of a relationship, after all? To confide in others; to communicate and work through problems together? He hadn't felt the same since Lily of the Valley. At some points, he even felt disturbed.

She blamed Hunter for it all. They rarely ever saw the trainer in all black, but every time he showed up, Niko went into a downward spiral of melancholy. And it worried her to no end. But Niko still didn't confide in her. She knew something was wrong, and he didn't want to tell her, for whatever reason.

In addition to Niko, she also felt anxious about her upcoming rematch with Palmer. To be sure, she had a strategy in mind, but wondered about the chances of it working. Only time would tell, and if she wanted to win, she needed to take a risk. But if she lost, she had no idea how she would feel. She'd never lost to someone more than once in an official battle, the exception being Brittany in contests.

Sighing to herself, she fell asleep.

* * *

The following morning, Lauren woke up to see Niko and magmar sitting on the ground, looking at the magmarizer with unusual interest. She sat down—cross-legged—next to Niko and also stared at it. After a minute, she turned to her boyfriend.

"Any…progress…?" She asked. Niko shook his head. "Do we even know _what_ this is?"

"Well, it's filled with magma. Fay and JJ offered to go and look into it for us. Brittany's off getting food." Niko said, looking at his girlfriend, and noticing that, even though she just woke up, she still looked pretty.

They continued to stare at it until JJ burst into the room. "Niko! Magmar! Lauren…good morning!" The curly blonde said. "I figured it out."

"Wasn't too hard. Just had to type 'magmarizer' into a search engine." Fay said as he walked into the room.

"Alright, what is it?" Niko asked, looking up at his friends.

"Okay, so that magmarizer is used to evolve magmar." JJ explained. Magmar's eyes widened. Niko turned to the spitfire pokémon curiously.

"But…he's holding it right now." Niko said.

"Magmar has to evolve through a trade." Fay explained. Niko nodded, thinking about it for a moment. He didn't want to get rid of his magmar, especially just to evolve him. Then Lauren piped in, finding a solution to this conundrum.

"What if one of us traded with Niko to evolve magmar, and then immediately traded back?" Lauren said. "That way he gets to keep his new magmortar."

Niko leaned over and kissed Lauren on the cheek. "Great idea! Magmar, are you up for it?" Magmar eagerly nodded, holding up the magmarizer as he tried to stand up. Niko took it, allowing magmar to get up, and then gave it back as he too got up, helping his girlfriend up as well. "Let's do it, then. But…who to trade with?"

"I'll do it." Lauren said. "I know haunter evolves through trading. It works out really well. Dual evolution."

"Just like with me and Lauren." JJ said. "Only a little different."

Niko nodded, and the four of them—plus magmar—walked out into the Pokémon Center lobby to join Brittany for a quick meal. During that time they explained the solution to the magmarizer problem. Brittany thought it was a great idea, and likened it to Lauren and JJ's dual evolution with the shiny stones.

"So, let's do it, then…" Niko said, standing up after finishing his food. Lauren sent out haunter and explained the situation to him as well. The gas pokémon, who hadn't experienced an evolution in a long time, nodded eagerly, turning to Niko and magmar with interest.

Nurse Joy, upon hearing their request to trade, showed the couple into a backroom near the dorm rooms. Inside was a massive machine with bent tubes running along the top and the sides. Under the tubes were platforms, presumably where the pokéballs go.

"Just let me know when you're done." Nurse Joy said politely, leaving Niko and Lauren alone with their pokémon.

"Ready?" They both said to their pokémon.

"Just make sure to hold on to that magmarizer the entire time, alright magmar?" Niko said. Magmar nodded eagerly as he returned to his pokéball. "Let's do this."

"Yeah!" Lauren said, moving over to the right side of the machine; Niko to the left. They both placed their pokéballs onto the machine, and then turned on the machine.

Both pokéballs were sucked into the tubes and moved through them until the other side before landing on the opposite platforms. Niko and Lauren both picked up the balls and then summoned the other's pokémon.

As soon as haunter and magmar appeared in front of the other trainer, they began to glow brightly. Magmar expanded in size and height, growing to roughly Lauren's height. He now had cannons for arms, a long flame-like tail, and flames emitting from his shoulders and atop his head. Black rings appeared midway across his arms, and he was now a magmortar.

Haunter, on the other hand, changed significantly. His arms were now attached to his body and, for the first time, he grew legs. His entire body was a face, with glowing red eyes and a wide, shiny white smile showed below the eyes. He now had two black horns on each side of his head, with smaller spikes in between and running along his back. Niko pulled out his pokédex to observe the new pokémon:

" _Gengar, the shadow pokémon. Ghost and poison type. The leer that floats in darkness belongs to a gengar delighting in casting curses on people._ "

"Alright, let's get you back to Lauren," Niko said, returning a happy gengar to his pokéball. Lauren did the same with magmortar, and the couple placed the pokéballs on the platforms. Within seconds, the re-trade was completed, and Niko and Lauren took their pokémon from the platforms. "We did it." He said, looking at magmortar's pokéball happily.

"We did." Lauren said, motioning for Niko to leave the trade room while she followed closely behind. They walked side-by-side into the Pokémon Center lobby to greet their friends, all of whom seemed to be waiting to see the results of their friend's efforts. After approaching the booth, Niko and Lauren summoned magmortar and gengar, respectively, to show the others.

"Well done, Niko." Fay said, looking at the newly evolved magmortar.

"Looks like everyone won here." JJ said, looking at the pokémon standing before him.

"Evolution doesn't always help." An oddly familiar, cold voice said from behind Niko, who spun around to see Hunter standing there. "I didn't know you trained fire types, Niko. Doesn't seem like they work out well for you."

"Magmortar could beat your pokémon, without a doubt." Niko snapped back.

"So, is magmortar stronger than your _first_ pokémon? Hmm?" Hunter asked, raising an eyebrow. When Niko didn't have a response, he continued. "Because you can't seem to beat me with that pathetic venusaur of yours. Don't think your magmortar is any better."

"Piss off, Hunter." Lauren said. Gengar began growling a little in response. Magmortar was oddly calm, staring up at Hunter, who was easily a foot taller.

"Oh, the feisty little one. What's it going to take for you to leave this loser?" Hunter asked. "He's miserable. He can't win. He'll never be a 'Pokémon Master,' or whatever it is he wants to do. From my perspective, you're wasting your time."

"Why do you always have to put him down?" Brittany asked. "What did he do to you?"

"Oh, nothing. But I just so happen to run into him a lot. Might as well tell him the truth while I'm at it, right?"

"But is it so necessary? He's clearly hurt by it…" Brittany said, looking concerned.

"Oh, poor little boy is hurt? Oh, no…" Hunter said in a mocking tone. "Please. Welcome to the real world, Niko. If you think about it, I'm doing you a favor here. Giving you a taste of the real world. When you're done playing around with your little friends, you'll realize what I mean."

"You're doing him no favors!" Lauren shouted. "Just leave him alone!"

"Fine. Whatever. If he doesn't want to listen, who am I to force Niko—or any of you—to do anything? You're worthless to me." He shrugged. "Are you still challenging the Frontier Brains?"

"Yes." Niko and Lauren both said.

"Ah, right. I'm sure you're here to challenge Palmer, then?" They both nodded again. "Right. Well, here's a hint, Niko: if you can't beat me, then you can't beat him."

"Then let me battle you." Niko said, turning to magmortar. "One-on-one."

Hunter smirked. "Sure. But remember what I said. If you hope that evolution will help your cause, then you are sorely mistaken. Both of you are." He said in reference to gengar as well.

Minutes later, Niko and Hunter stood opposite one another on the practice battlefield. Niko turned to magmortar, who quickly walked onto the field in anticipation of whatever Hunter chose to summon. Their rival smirk again, pulling out a pokéball.

"Let's go then, drapion!" Hunter shouted, summoning a familiar purple and black scorpion. "Cross poison!"

"Flamethrower!" Niko commanded. Magmortar raised his right hand-cannon and unleashed a jet of flame that collided with the purple "x" mark flying through the air. "Now, sunny day!"

"Ah. Drapion, cross poison again!" Hunter commanded. While magmortar was brightening the day, drapion repeated its attack, striking the blast pokémon in the chest and knocking him over. "Now, poison fang!"

Drapion then scuttled forward, faster than Niko believed, and lowered its head to magmortar's left hand-cannon and sank its sharp, purple teeth. Magmortar cried out as he felt the poison coursing through him, retaliating with a fire punch to drapion's face and knocking the scorpion backward. Drapion was forced to let go and quickly launched out a cross poison to keep magmortar on the ground.

"You can do this, magmortar! We evolved for a reason!" Niko shouted, only to see Hunter shake his head. "No, Hunter! We can win!"

"Whatever you say." Hunter said as magmortar began to glow light purple and wincing, indicating it was poisoned. "Drapion, venoshock!"

"What the—?"

Drapion opened its maw and spat out poison onto magmortar, drenching the blast pokémon. Slowly, magmortar got back up and weakly raised his hand-cannon to drapion, unleashing a powerful jet of flame from it. Drapion covered its face from the flames that ultimately left a burn mark.

"Let's end this, drapion. Cross poison!" Hunter commanded. Drapion crossed its arms once more, creating a light purple "x" mark on them, and shot it at magmortar, knocking him backwards and causing him to stumble on the ground. Magmortar then fell forward in defeat, the poison ending him.

"Magmortar…is unable to battle." JJ said sadly. "Drapion is the winner."

"Of course I am." Hunter said, returning drapion with taking his eyes off of Niko. "Why wouldn't I be?"

Niko ignored Hunter. He was too concerned for magmortar, quickly returning the blast pokémon and running into the Pokémon Center. Following him were his friends, all of whom glared at Hunter along the way.

"Consider what I've said." He told Lauren as she passed by. She pretended to ignore him.

Hours later, Niko sat at the booth, wondering if magmortar would be alright. Nurse Joy said that the poison wasn't anywhere close to lethal, but it would take some time to heal, which meant that magmortar couldn't participate in his rematch against Palmer. Not that he could have, anyways: magmortar, as a fire type, wasn't going to do much damage to any of Palmer's known pokémon.

His friends sat at the booth with him the entire time. Eventually, as they were eating, Lauren finally brought up their rematch.

"Let's do it tomorrow." Niko said. "In the afternoon. Sound good?"

Lauren smiled. "Of course."

"Niko?" Nurse Joy said aloud, forcing the young trainer to turn towards her. "Your magmortar is ready for pick-up."

"Thanks, Nurse." Niko said, walking up to the front desk and picking up magmortar's pokéball. He then summoned the blast pokémon and embraced him. "Are you feeling better?"

"Mag." Magmortar said softly. He didn't seem very happy.

"You've never battled Hunter, if I recall. He…is demoralizing. Just don't let it get you down, alright?"

Magmortar nodded, wanting to return to his pokéball. Niko granted his pokémon's wish, and then returned back to the booth to sit with his friends for the remainder of the day.

That evening, Niko and Lauren lay there. Everyone but Fay was asleep—he was back in the lobby doing work so he wouldn't disturb anyone else.

"How are you feeling?" Lauren asked, looking up at Niko.

"I'm fine."

"Oh, don't do this." She said. "You're not 'just fine.' You haven't been. What's wrong?"

"Nothing."

"Is it about Hunter? Palmer?"

Niko sighed. "Lauren…let's talk about it after tomorrow, alright?"

"Fine. Promise?"

"I promise."

"How do you feel about the rematch?"

For the first time in that conversation, Niko looked pleased. "I feel like I can do it, despite what Hunter thinks. I can beat Palmer. What about you?" He looked down to see Lauren also smiling.

"I think I can beat him, too. We will, together."

Niko nodded. "Yep, we will."

* * *

The following afternoon, Niko and Lauren—along with their friends—approached the Battle Tower in the center of the Fight Area. The trip didn't take long, but it felt like forever to Niko. Upon entering the tower, he saw Palmer in the lobby.

"Niko, Lauren. Welcome." He said, approaching them to shake their hands. "Flint told me about your rematch. You just so happened to catch me coming back from lunch. Nice timing." He said, flashing a smile. "I hope both of you are ready."

"We are." Niko said confidently. Palmer nodded.

"Of course. Come with me." They then walked to the elevator and, just like last time, and went up several floors until they reached the top floor, which was unlike last time. "I usually don't bring people to the top floor, but here we are." He said, opening the elevator door and escorting the group to the battlefield, which looked like any ordinary battle except for the red and white pokéball emblazoned on the middle. A referee was sitting in the stands, supposedly on duty in the event there would be any challengers. "We're ready." Palmer said to the referee, who jumped out of the stands and got ready. Palmer then talked to him for a minute while the group got situated in the stands.

Niko then turned to Lauren, as if decided who was to go first.

"You first." He said.

"No, you should go first." Lauren said with a smile.

"But I went first against Dahlia."

"So? I don't mind. You went first last time against Palmer. It only makes sense that you do it again, right?"

Niko smiled. "Alright, I'll go first." He then leaned down and kissed her before turning to face Palmer, who was on the other end of the field.

"Niko, are you ready?" Palmer bellowed across the field, which looked larger than any standard battlefield.

"Yes. I'm ready." He held out a pokéball.

"Of course. Milotic, I choose you!" Palmer shouted.

"Venusaur, let's go!" Niko commanded. And like that, the battle was on.

* * *

 **Author's note: And the final Frontier Battle is about to begin! Can Niko overcome Palmer's dragonite and win? Is Hunter right about Niko? Find out next time! Hope you enjoyed!**


	16. The offer

**Episode 16: The offer**

"Venusaur, stun spore!" Niko commanded.

"Milotic, hypnosis!" Palmer commanded. The tender pokémon's eyes began to glow bright blue, emitting rings from its eyes towards venusaur, who promptly closed his own and responded by shaking the flower on his body to emit yellow dust from it. The dust moved along the field towards milotic, who responded with hydro pump, blowing away the spores and rendering venusaur's attack also ineffective.

"Fine, then. Razor leaf!" Niko shouted. Venusaur cried out as he summoned a torrent of leaves at milotic, who responded with ice beam, once more blocking the attack. _Keep calm, Niko. We got this_. "Venusaur, razor leaf once more!" It was blocked by hydro pump. "Palmer, are you going to attack me?"

"Hah! Only if you do." He said, winking. "Milotic, use ice beam!"

The tender pokémon contorted its body a little in the air before unleashing a stream of ice at its opponent. This time, the attack successfully hit, knocking venusaur backwards a little.

"Now, hypnosis!"

"No! Venusaur, use stun spore again!" Niko shouted, the fire within burning. He felt his bond with venusaur, even if it was faint. The seed pokémon roared out again, a cloud of yellow dust erupting from his flower and spreading over towards milotic, covering the hypnosis and ultimately paralyzing the water type.

Niko then felt energy surging through him and venusaur. They were going to do it again. And they would win.

"Venusaur, frenzy plant!" Niko cried out. The seed pokémon obliged, summoning the energy from within the earth itself, and bringing spiked roots up from somewhere (since they were several hundred feet above the ground) and launching them all at milotic, slapping the tender pokémon in quick succession. "Now, finish it off with solarbeam!"

"Milotic, ice beam!" Palmer cried out, but it was no use. The seed pokémon charged up a glowing green orb above his flower and launch a controlled attack at milotic, quickly defeating the tender pokémon.

"Milotic is unable to battle, venusaur wins! Tower Tycoon Palmer will now send out his second pokémon!" The referee declared.

"Milotic, return. Well done, Niko. I didn't see frenzy plant coming. Good to see that you've mastered an ultimate move. However," Palmer pulled out a second pokéball. "You'll find that it won't always help you. Rhyperior, I choose you!"

 _Why rhyperior?_ Niko thought to himself. _He wouldn't send out_ that _pokémon unless he had a plan in mind_. "Venusaur, be careful, alright?"

"Venus." Venusaur said gruffly, staring down his new opponent.

"Rhyperior, use earthquake!" Palmer commanded. The drill pokémon shook the ground beneath it, causing venusaur to shake violently. "Now, rock wrecker!"

"Block it with solarbeam!" Niko commanded. While rhyperior was preparing its massive gray rock, venusaur began to charge up his own attack. Both shot forward at the same time, colliding in the middle of the field in a small explosion. "Now, razor leaf!"

"Rhyperior, flamethrower!" Palmer commanded. Niko looked shocked. When did rhyperior learn that move? The drill pokémon raised its arm and, out of one of the holes in its palm, unleashed a jet of fire at the leaves, burning them up and still managing to hit venusaur. "Follow up with earthquake!"

"Venusaur, stun spore!" Niko shouted. The seed pokémon, who was now sporting a burn mark from the previous attack, obliged and slowly tried to get out the yellow dust, dispersing it across the field towards rhyperior, who blew the attack away with flamethrower after quickly ending the earthquake.

"Rock wrecker!"

Rhyperior conjured a massive gray rock once more just as venusaur was about to unleash a solarbeam. Once more, the two attacks ended in a draw. Just like with milotic, Niko needed to come up with something else. Something to defeat Palmer's rhyperior with. He had the advantage. He might as well use it.

"Venusaur, let's go once more. Use frenzy plant!" Niko shouted, thrusting his fist into the air with passion. Like before, venusaur summoned spiked roots from the ground and shot them at rhyperior, slapping the drill pokémon several times. Rhyperior attempted to block with flamethrower, and managed to burn a couple of the roots, but was nevertheless overwhelmed by the ultimate move. "Now, razor leaf!"

The seed pokémon once more conjured a torrent of leaves and shot them all at rhyperior, who fell to one knee upon impact and then fell forward.

"Rhyperior is unable to battle, venusaur wins!" The referee declared. "Tower Tycoon Palmer will now send out his third and final pokémon!"

"Wow!" JJ said excitedly. "Niko's going to do it!"

"Yeah, I think so…" Lauren said with a smile.

Palmer returned rhyperior and looked up at Niko. "Well done. You're full of surprises today, aren't you?"

"I suppose so. Ready for round three, venusaur?" Niko asked. The seed pokémon nodded calmly.

"Alright, then. Dragonite, let's go! Palmer shouted, summoning the dragon pokémon. "Dragon dance!"

"Venusaur, stun spore!" Niko commanded. However, dragonite rocketed into the air, above the cloud of paralyzing dust, and surrounded itself with a red and purple aura. "Razor leaf!"

Razor leaf hit dragonite, but didn't seem to do much damage to dragonite, who stood completely still. Niko and venusaur kept launching a barrage of attacks, but none of them seemed successful. Niko grit his teeth; he knew what was coming.

"Aerial ace!" Palmer shouted. Dragonite then dove down, breaking the red and purple aura, and crashed into venusaur, slashing the seed pokémon across the back. As dragonite rose back into the air, venusaur collapsed onto the ground.

"Venusaur is unable to battle, dragonite wins!" The referee announced. "Challenger Niko will now send out his second pokémon!"

"Venusaur, return." Niko said with a sigh. "You did amazing. I'm very proud of you, buddy. Now, glalie, I choose you!" Niko said, summoning his only ice type pokémon. "Use ice beam!"

"Dragon dance." Palmer said calmly, letting his pokémon take the ice beam directly. Niko saw that he knew what he was doing; it was easy to read on his face. "Now, stone edge!"

"Oh, no…" Niko said. "Glalie, protect!"

Dragonite dove towards the ground, slamming a fist into the floor of the battlefield. Large pointed stoned erupted from the floor and slammed into glalie, who was luckily able to block with protect. "Again!" Palmer shouted. Dragonite shot forward, using the attack at a closer range. Niko commanded glalie to use double team, but dragonite was quicker this time, slamming pointed rocks into glalie, and launching the face pokémon into the air. "Now, dragon dance once more!"

The red and purple aura engulfed dragonite as glalie spun down towards the ground, gaining speed as he did so. Since he was spinning in a contorted way, it was difficult for Niko to issue any attacks or for glalie to use them. For the first time during this battle, and the first time during the Battle Frontier, Niko was genuinely scared.

"Stone edge once more!" Palmer commanded. Just as glalie was about to hit the floor, dragonite slammed its hand into the ground, summoning a final pointed rock that stabbed glalie with enough impact to pierce him. Luckily, glalie wasn't too hurt, but was unable to battle.

"Glalie is unable to battle, dragonite is the winner! Niko will send out his third and final pokémon!" The referee declared.

Niko let out a heavy sigh. "Alright, then. We can still do this. Glalie, return. You did great." He then thought about who to use next. If he was being honest with himself, he was at a loss. His strongest pokémon—venusaur—couldn't beat dragonite. The only pokémon he had with an advantage—glalie—couldn't beat dragonite. If not them, then who?

Lauren, Fay, Brittany, and JJ all watched Niko stand there, completely still. Normally, he didn't hesitate on who he wished to battle with. For all of them, this was a first.

Suddenly, thoughts swirled through Niko's mind. He thought of rampardos getting hurt at Lily of the Valley; he thought of venusaur struggling to learn frenzy plant; he thought of losing to Fay three years ago; his inability to train feraligatr; everything Hunter has ever said to him.

 _"_ _You'll never be a strong pokémon trainer."_

 _"_ _I've actually won something. What's Niko here done? Nothing. He's useless to me, and he proves my point every time we battle."_

 _"_ _Here's a hint, Niko: if you can't beat me, then you can't beat him."_

"I…I can't win…" Niko finally said, albeit softly. He looked up at Palmer and dragonite, the latter of whom was floating there, waiting for its next opponent.

"What…?" Lauren said, looking concerned. "What did he say?"

"He said he can't win." Fay answered. "Is he giving up?"

"No, he's not." Lauren said, standing up. "Don't give up, Niko! I believe in you!"

Hearing this, Niko shook his head. "I can't win. I don't know what else to do. Palmer, I cannot beat your dragonite. I forfeit the match."

Palmer raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure? Why not give it a shot?" Niko shook his head. "Niko…you have to at least try."

"Why try?" Niko said. "I've fought this dragonite twice, and haven't even come close to winning against it. I know when I'm going to lose."

"But you don't know that." Palmer said, now almost pleading. "However…I respect your wishes. If you want to forfeit, then you have the right to do so." He turned to the referee, and nodded.

"Challenger Niko has forfeited the match. The victory goes to Tower Tycoon Palmer!" The referee declared.

While Palmer returned dragonite and walked off to heal his pokémon, Niko turned as if going into the stands, meeting Lauren halfway.

"What's wrong with you?" She demanded. Niko could tell she wasn't happy. "Why did you just give up?"

"I already said why—I can't win. I'm not going to put my pokémon through that. His dragonite is too strong for me."

Lauren sighed. "We need to talk about this after my battle. I want to know what's going on with you."

Niko ignored her, instead walking over to the stands to sit with Fay, Brittany, and JJ, all of whom looked at him with shocked expressions. Even Fay, who hardly ever expressed surprise, was awestruck at this move.

Meanwhile, Palmer returned from healing his team, ready to face Lauren. After the referee explained the rules of the match, both trainers pulled out a pokéball, and the battle was on.

"Milotic, I choose you!" Palmer shouted.

"Roserade, let's go!" Lauren said. "Use toxic spikes!"

"Milotic, hypnosis!" Palmer commanded. Fortunately for Lauren, the toxic spikes landed first, scattering across the field. However, roserade quickly collapsed onto the ground in a deep slumber.

Lauren took a deep breath. "Roserade, return." She ultimately said, exchanging roserade for another pokémon. "Lopunny, I choose you!" She shouted, summoning the rabbit pokémon. "Use agility and then thunderpunch!"

The rabbit pokémon charged towards her opponent, fist lighting up with electric sparks. She soon collided with an ice beam from milotic, slamming the thunderpunch directly into the attack and blocking it. Lauren then commanded lopunny to repeat the move. This time, thunderpunch landed successfully, crashing milotic into the floor of the already damaged battlefield.

"Now, bounce and hi jump kick!" Lauren commanded, thrusting her hand into the air. Lopunny obliged, leaping into the air with bounce and sticking her right foot outwards before diving back down and slamming her foot onto milotic, who responded with a powerful hydro pump. "Thunderpunch!" Lauren shouted. Both attacks collided, resulting in an explosion that launched lopunny high into the air. "Land on your feet, and use agility!"

The rabbit landed successfully before running around the field, increasing her speed. Milotic attempted to use ice beam, dragging the attack across wherever lopunny ran. However, the tender pokémon couldn't keep up, and soon found a thunderpunch running across its face.

"Finish it off with bounce and hi jump kick!" Lauren shouted as milotic halted all movement. Lopunny nodded, leaping once more into the air and slamming her foot down onto milotic's serpentine-like body, defeating it.

"Milotic is unable to battle, lopunny is the winner!" The referee declared. "Tower Tycoon Palmer will now send out his second pokémon!"

"Milotic, return. Well done. Rhyperior, I choose you!" Palmer shouted. As soon as he did so, the drill pokémon began to glow bright purple as the toxic spikes took effect. Just as quickly, Lauren returned lopunny.

"Roserade, I choose you!" She shouted, summoning the sleeping bouquet pokémon. She waited a minute for roserade to attempt to wake up, watching the grass type get shaken by earthquake and later by rock wrecker. Then, roserade woke up, shaking her head slightly before turning to her trainer. "Hey, girl. Let's win this." She said softly. Roserade nodded, standing back up to face rhyperior.

"Rhyperior, use flamethrower!" Palmer commanded.

"Grasswhistle!" Lauren commanded. Roserade nodded, leaning into her arm and blowing into it, emitting a melodic sound. Upon hearing this, rhyperior ended its flamethrower and crashed into the ground, sound asleep. "Now, magical leaf!"

"Rhyperior, wake up!" Palmer commanded, just as rhyperior felt the poison course through it. It didn't work, and the purple leaves struck the drill pokémon's rock-hard charcoal-colored body. Palmer grit his teeth, trying to find a way around this. He smirked, but didn't show any other indication of a counterattack.

"Now, petal dance!" Lauren shouted, spinning around and thrusting her hand forward as she landed back on her feet. Roserade did the same, conjuring a tornado of pink petals that she manipulated into hitting rhyperior, who slowly woke back up. "Take caution, roserade, but let's not give in. Our team is counting on us to make this battle a little easier."

"But it won't, Lauren." Palmer said. "Rhyperior, use flamethrower!"

"Roserade, magical leaf after dodging!" Lauren shouted. Roserade shifted to the side, evading the jet of fire aimed directly at her. She then shot out a torrent of leaves at her opponent, aiming them at rhyperior's feet. "Now, let's win this! Petal dance!"

Roserade lunged forward, conjuring a twister of petals in midair and launching them from both hand-bouquets at rhyperior, who attempted to counterattack with flamethrower. Unfortunately for the drill pokémon, but petal dance hit first.

"Now, magical leaf!" Lauren cried out. Roserade lunged forward once more and shot a magical leaf at rhyperior, knocking the massive rock type backwards in defeat.

"Rhyperior is unable to battle, Roserade is the winner! Tower Tycoon Palmer will now send out his third and final pokémon!"

"Roserade, return." Lauren said. "I have a plan here. Be ready in case I need you." She said softly. "Lopunny, I choose you!"

"Dragonite, let's go!" Palmer shouted. "Use dragon dance!"

"Lopunny, agility and bounce!" Lauren commanded. The rabbit pokémon charged forward, leaping into the air and landing a powerful foot on top of her dragon opponent. The aura from dragon dance burst and Palmer commanded dragonite to use dragon claw. Lopunny evaded the move, landing back on the ground and proceeding to use thunderpunch.

"Stone edge!" Palmer commanded. The dragon type thrust its hand into the ground, causing pointed rocks to erupt out of the ground. Lopunny managed to dodge the first few stones, but got hit just before she landed thunderpunch. "Now, aerial ace!"

Dragonite shot towards the injured lopunny and slashed down on her. The rabbit rolled across the floor of the battlefield and jumped back up, glaring at her opponent, who continued using dragon dance.

"Bounce and thunderpunch!" Lauren shouted. Lopunny leapt back into the air before landing down on dragonite. However, before she could, dragonite exited the dragon dance and struck at lopunny's foot with dragon claw, swiping the rabbit away. Lopunny flew through the air, landing beside Lauren, unable to battle.

"Lopunny is unable to battle, dragonite is the winner. Challenger Lauren will now send out her next pokémon!" The referee declared.

"Return, lopunny. We managed to get some hits in. Thank you for the help. Now, gengar, I choose you!"

"Ah, alright then. Dragonite, dragon dance." Palmer said, looking confident.

"Gengar, hypnosis!" Lauren commanded. The shadow pokémon emitted red rings from his eyes that successfully hit dragonite, forcing it to fall asleep. Lauren's eyes widened. She figured that move would be a risk, but she didn't expect it to work the first time. "Okay. Gengar, use dream eater!"

"Gen!" Gengar said, closing his eyes and calmly probing for dragonite's mind. Once he found it, he penetrated it, and began corrupting dragonite's dreams. On the field, the dragon pokémon spasmed a few times before waking up and forcing gengar out.

"Use dark pulse!"

"Aerial ace!" Palmer shouted. Dragonite burst forward, claws bared as it prepared to strike its opponent. Gengar launched out a nexus of dark energy that collided with the dragon pokémon, only momentarily disrupting it. Dragonite landed its attack on gengar, who was flung backwards. "Now, stone edge!"

"Break the stones with dark pulse!" Lauren shouted. Dragonite briefly turned a purple color, indicating that the toxic spikes were still in effect, and launched into its attack, sending pointed stones in quick succession towards its opponent. However, gengar ended the attack with a series of dark pulses. "Now, shadow punch!"

"Gengar!" The shadow pokémon said, hurling several spectral fists at dragonite, subduing it with relative ease. Lauren them commanded gengar to use dark pulse once more. Again, the attack landed, but not before dragonite landed an aerial ace on the ghost type, launching him into the ground.

"Hypnosis!"

"Aerial ace!" Palmer commanded. Dragonite rushed downward, slashing at gengar before collapsing into the ground as well, sound asleep. For the first time, Palmer looked genuinely worried. Lauren noticed this, and smirked.

"We can do this, gengar. Use dark pulse!"

"GENGAR!" Gengar shouted, putting both of his hands together and unleashing a nexus of dark energy at dragonite, slightly moving the dragon pokémon along the ground from the force of the attack.

"Finish it off with dream eater!" Lauren shouted, a tear in her eye. In that moment, she had not felt prouder of her very first pokémon. The one who has stuck with her since the very beginning, and hasn't let up. Gengar closed his eyes and once again penetrated dragonite's mind, searching for more dreams to corrupt. Dragonite then began spasming again, and gengar launched another shadow punch at the dragon type, effectively finishing it off.

"Dragonite is unable to battle, gengar is the winner! And the victory goes to Lauren from Canalave City!" The referee declared.

Lauren blinked in disbelief, watching gengar turn to her and happily float towards her. She felt a chill run through her body as the ghost passed through her, but it didn't bother her in the least.

"Gengar…I have no words. Thank you." She said, looking up at the floating ghost. Gengar nodded, high on the satisfaction of winning. "You, and roserade, and lopunny…I—I just can't express my happiness right now."

"Lauren." Palmer said, getting the blue-haired trainer's attention. "As proof of your victory, I award you with the Tower Print." He held out a small gold piece with a engraving of the Battle Tower on it. "Now, this is your fifth print, correct?"

"Yes. I've beaten the other four facilities." Lauren answered.

"Well done, then. In ordinary Pokémon Leagues, getting all of the badges qualify you for the league. However, there is no league on Battle Island. We have a different reward, if you so choose to call it such."

"What is it?" Lauren asked. By now, her friends—and Niko—were standing beside her. Gengar was also present, curious as to what Palmer was about to say.

"It is my duty—and highest honor—of offering you the option to become a Frontier Brain. Defeating the five facilities is not easy. Often times, trainers either quit or decline the offer. And since you have obtained all five prints, I would like to extend this offer to you."

Lauren turned to the group, and then to gengar, looking absolutely bemused. "Do I have to make this decision right now?"

"No. You can choose to join whenever you would like to. The offer is an indefinite one, but the sooner the better, I would say. But the last thing I want is for you to feel any pressure. It is a heavy decision, I'm sure, and you have every right to weight your options before reaching a conclusion. When you decide, please come back here and find me, and we can talk."

"Thank you for the offer, Palmer. And thank you for the battle. I appreciated it. But I do need some time to think about this."

"No worries." Palmer said with a smile, and then led the group out of the Battle Tower.

* * *

Later that evening, Niko was sitting on the edge of the port, watching boats docking for the night. Ever since leaving the Battle Tower, he had done everything he could to avoid Lauren. He didn't want to talk to her. He didn't want to talk with anyone.

He wasn't jealous of his girlfriend. In fact, he was genuinely proud of her. However, he couldn't help but feel utmost disappointment in himself. And as such, he wanted to separate himself from the others until he could gather his thoughts. That way, he wouldn't lose his mind.

"Hey."

Niko turned around to see Lauren standing there with her usual concerned look. As she started to approach, Niko got back on his feet and prepared to leave.

"Wait, please don't go." She said softly, with a hint of anger.

"Why not?" Niko said, turning around. The lights from the lanterns hung high above them, illuminating most of their body, but leaving some parts in the shadows. "I'm not in the mood to talk to anyone."

"You never are!" Lauren said, raising her voice. "All I want to do—all _anyone_ wants to do—is help you! Instead, all you're doing is acting like a child. 'Oh look at me, I'm Niko, I suck at everything please pity me!' C'mon, give me a break."

"Oh, you shut up." Niko said, clearly offending Lauren. "You have no idea what I'm thinking about."

"Of course I don't! How would I!?" She raised her hands up and took a step closer to Niko. "You never say anything to me! I'm your girlfriend! I'm supposed to be helping you! And I want to!"

"If you really wanted to help me, you'd just leave me alone, then! But of course you can't do that. You have to know everything that's going on, don't you?"

"You don't get it, Niko…" She said, a tear running down her cheek. "You really don't get it?"

"What don't I get, Lauren? What don't I get? That, as usual, I've failed to improve as a trainer? That I let some jackass get the best of me? That I have failed as a boyfriend to you? That I've failed as a friend, or as a—"

"I love you."

"What?" Niko asked in an irritated tone. "What did you say?"

"I love you!" Lauren spat out. "I love the person you are! I love how you prioritize your pokémon, and your friends and family! I love that you actually _care_ about other people! I've known other guys, and been in other relationships, but they have _never_ cared about those close to them like you have!" She was crying now. "And I love that you're passionate about being the best you can be, and seeing that your pokémon do the same! I love that you encourage me, and JJ, and Brittany, and your brother to keep going, and to never give up! I love you!"

Niko was silent. Then Lauren ran up to him and embraced him tightly.

"And seeing you down on yourself. Seeing you give up like that. I hate it. I hate seeing you upset…"

Niko continued to be silent. Eventually, Lauren let go and lightly tapped him on the chest with her fist.

"Please say something…" she said.

"I…I don't know what to say." He said simply, taking a step back nervously.

"You don't know what to say?" Lauren repeated him. "Why not? Do you not love me?"

Niko stood still, trying to process his thoughts. "I…I don't know." This seemed to hurt Lauren more, as she completely broke down. "Don't cry."

"Why shouldn't I?" She shouted. "All I've done is be by your side, never giving up on you, and this is how I'm paid back? You know, when you beat me at Lily of the Valley, I was mad at you, but I had to be proud of you and cheer you on, because I believe in you. When you lost to Palmer, I was sad that I also lost, but I wanted to help you feel better. Yet you closed yourself off to everyone. Every time Hunter puts you down, all I want to do is punch him in the face, but you close yourself off further, and deeper, until I can't reach you. I've tried to do everything I can for you, but you just think of yourself."

"You literally just said I care about others above myself!" Niko said, thoroughly confused.

"Well, you haven't recently. But at your core you're a selfless type. I know you are. Don't try to point out flaws, Niko. You're in the wrong here, and I think you know it."

"It doesn't matter, though." Niko said. "I don't care anymore!"

"About me?"

Niko hesitated before answering. "I guess so…"

"If—if that's how it is…" Lauren closed her eyes, unable to see either way. "Then bye, Niko." She said, walking away, leaving Niko on the dock alone.

Niko returned an hour later, only to find Fay and JJ sitting there, in the same booth that they had sat in for the past few days. He silently sat down next to Fay, and across from JJ.

"She's really hurt, Niko." JJ said.

"Were you two waiting here for me?" He asked. JJ nodded, Fay didn't.

"I was doing work anyways. But I couldn't help but listen to what happened. If you want to talk to her, she's in our room with Brittany."

"I don't, but thanks." Niko said silently.

"So…what's next, then?" JJ asked. "Are you going to challenge Palmer again?"

"No."

"Oh. So…back to Kanto, then?"

"I guess so." Niko said, looking away. They were silent for a few more minutes until Fay broke the silence.

"That reminds me, Niko. Professor Oak told me that your Mom called. She needs to talk to you, as soon as possible."

"Really? What's up?"

"He wouldn't say, but it sounded urgent from the email. I'd give them a call if you can." Fay said. Niko got up, and walked over to a video call, slowly dialing the number. The screen was black for a few moments before suddenly showing Niko's living room back in Pallet Town.

"Mom?" Niko asked calmly. His mother showed up on the screen, tears in her eyes. "What's wrong?"

"Niko…your father…he's very sick." She said in between sniffling.

"What's wrong with him?" Niko asked, his voice rising a little. His mom tried to come up with words, but couldn't. Instead, he saw Jake appear. "Jake…what's wrong with Dad?"

"Niko, please come back here as soon as you can. It looks like Dad might be…might be…just come back, please."

"Okay." Niko said, and Jake hung up. He sat there for a moment, staring at the black screen. _There's no way. No, this isn't happening to me._ He thought before a tear ran down his cheek.

"Niko…?" JJ asked, getting out of the booth and walking over. He leaned over and saw Niko crying. "Are you okay?"

"JJ, I'm going back to Pallet Town first thing in the morning." Niko said definitively.

"I'm going with you. Whatever it is, I'm here." JJ said, and walked back to the booth to give his friend some peace.

* * *

 **Author's note: Woah...a lot to take in in this episode. The season finale is next! What will happen with Niko and his family? Can the group stay together? What about that offer Lauren was given by Palmer? Will she take it? Find out in the final episode!**


	17. The Anti-hero

**Episode 17: The Anti-hero**

 _Niko crouched down to get a better look at the tiny bulbasaur in front of him. "Hey, Dad! What's this pokémon?"_

 _"_ _That's a bulbasaur, Niko. It's a grass and poison type pokémon." His dad said softly, crouching down as well. "You see this bulb on the back? It allows bulbasaur to eat without having to actually eat food."_

 _"_ _How does it do that?" The young Niko asked, looking at the bulb._

 _"_ _It stores energy from the sun. And when it gets bigger, the bulb becomes a giant flower!" His Dad said with wonder._

 _"_ _Wow!" Niko said in awe. "Dad, can I get a bulbasaur?"_

 _"_ _When you're older, Niko. Trainers get their pokémon usually after they turn 10."_

 _"_ _One day, I'm going to catch a bulbasaur, and it'll be the strongest bulbasaur out there!" Niko said definitively._

 _"_ _If you're training it, then of course it will!" Dad said, patting his son's back. "Now, come on, Mom's waiting at home."_

* * *

The trip to Kanto took half a day. Niko, with Fay, Brittany, and JJ, took a flight from the Fight Area to Viridian City, where Professor Oak picked them up and drove them down to Pallet Town. As soon as they entered, Niko leapt out of the car and ran home. Tearing open the door, he looked around.

"Mom? Dad? Jake?" Niko shouted. Suddenly, delibird fluttered over to him. "Delibird, where is everyone?" Delibird nodded, pulling a note out of his bag and handed it to Niko. "They're at the hospital…alright, thanks." Niko said, running back out of the door. As he entered the front yard again, he saw his mom and Jake standing there, briefly speaking with Oak. As they saw him, they both burst into tears.

"Niko…" His mom said, running and embracing him. "Your Dad…"

"He died, Niko." Oak said. "Just this morning."

"W-what…? How? Why?" Niko said, unable to comprehend.

"He was sick. We didn't know how serious it was until recently. Over the past couple of weeks, he didn't want to bother you on your journey, and he didn't think it was as bad as it actually was."

"And it was hard to reach you, too." Jake said bluntly.

"I'm sorry…" Niko said. "You should have said something, though! I would have come back!"

"Niko…" Brittany said.

"What?! If something was wrong with my Dad, why am I just now finding out!?" He spat, unlatching himself from his mother. "I should have been there! He's my Dad!"

Niko then turned and ran inside, up the stairs, and closed himself off in his room. Throwing his bag across the room, he fell down on this bed and screamed into a pillow. His head was throbbing now; crying tended to do that.

He spun around and looked up at the ceiling, unsure of what to think; how to feel. The past 24 hours had been a whirlwind, and he was now trying to catch up. He lost to Palmer; he ended his relationship with Lauren; his Dad had passed away. Nothing was going right. He was lost. And he felt alone.

The following day, Niko sat outside on the back porch, watching his pokémon run around. It was the first time since Lily of the Valley that he had seen rampardos. And while the headbutt pokémon was beyond excited to see his trainer, Niko hardly glanced at him, unable to express any semblance of emotion. Occasionally, one of his pokémon would walk over to him—hitmonchan, aggron, yanmega, prinplup—but they didn't seem to get through to him.

The whole day, Niko sat there. He felt paralyzed. He felt like his world was ending. He felt hopeless.

Around sunset, he heard someone open the backdoor. The form of Brittany emerged from behind it, and the brunette walked over to sit next to her friend.

"How are you?" She asked in a soft tone.

"Fine."

"No…I mean, _how_ _are you_?" She repeated.

"Didn't I just answer that?" Niko demanded to know. Brittany shook her head. "Then what do you want to know?"

"You've been through a lot. I think it's best to talk to someone."

"And you think that has to be you?" Niko asked.

"It doesn't, but I want to help you."

"And how will you do that? Why do you want to do that?" Niko asked.

"Because you're one of my best friends, Niko. Whenever I've felt down, you've brought me back up. You've given me hope, and a reason to believe in myself. Give me a reason to not help you."

"Because I'm worthless. I can't do anything right."

"That's not true."

"HOW!?" Niko shouted. "How is it not true, Brittany!? For the past three years, I've shown no improvement in becoming a Pokémon Master! And I proved that to myself when I forfeited my match against Palmer! Hunter was right. I can't win. I can't do anything right. I'm a loser; a failure."

"That's not true."

"Yes. Yes it is." Niko said angrily. He slammed his fists on his legs. "How do you not see that!?"

"Because Niko, after travelling with you for almost four years now, I think I know you pretty well."

"Well, you clearly don't, because I'm not the person you think I am. I mean, I even managed to mess up the only real relationship I've ever been in."

"Yeah, you did mess that one up." Brittany said honestly. "Lauren was really torn up after your fight with her. It took a long time to calm her down, but she eventually came to." Brittany sighed. "She did love you, though."

"Well, not anymore she doesn't. And I guess I don't either."

"Love her, or yourself?"

"Both."

"Well, I'm sure you can find a way to patch things up with her. Start from square one, and rebuild that relationship. I think, deep down, you love her too."

"I don't know if I do. If I can't say it for sure, then I definitely don't."

"That's true…actually." Brittany said. "But I think you at least owe her an apology."

"I'm not talking to her."

"Well, I think she would like to talk to you. When I told her I'd be going back to Kanto, she seemed really worried about you and your father. Like, almost disturbed even." She shrugged. "And if you won't do it for her, or for yourself, can you do it for me?"

"I don't want to talk to her." Niko repeated.

"Fine." Brittany paused for a minute to watch Niko's pokémon running around. She brought her own to join, but they seemed more concerned for their trainer and Niko. "Anyways, I know you don't want to think about the future, but if you want to get away and travel a bit, I'd love to join you."

"I don't know what I want to do, Brittany."

"I know. No pressure." She got up. "I hope you feel better, Niko."

She then left.

* * *

The following day, Niko sat there on the same bench, watching the pokémon run around and play. He wasn't feeling much better, but he was relatively calm. Being outside certainly helped. He didn't realize how much he missed the temperate climate of the Kanto region. Or, at least, the part of the region that Pallet town resided in.

Then, just like the day before, another person exited from the house via the back door. This time, it took the form of JJ.

"Hey, buddy. How are you?"

"Fine."

"Oh, please. Brittany told me. Don't use that same response, because you're definitely not 'fine.'"

"What do you want, JJ?"

"To see how you're holding up. Fay wanted to come, but he's busy with work. And you've already talked to Brittany." He sat down. "So talk to me. What's going on?"

"My dad died, JJ. I lost the only relationship I've ever had. And I'm a failure as a trainer."

"I'm really sorry to hear about your dad, bud. He was a great guy. As for Lauren, you messed up, but Brittany's right—you should at least talk to her. And lastly, you're a great trainer."

"No. I'm not."

"Look out there, Niko!" JJ said, lifting his friend's head and pointing to the pokémon running around. "You did that! All of those badges you've gotten, all of those leagues you've participated in. That was because of you! You've helped raise pokémon up from good and bad circumstances! You've made friendships that will last a lifetime! How are you not a great trainer?"

"Hunter's right, though."

"Screw Hunter!" JJ snapped.

"No, he's right. I couldn't beat him, and I couldn't beat Palmer. I used the best pokémon for the situation, and I lost. You can't see me forfeit and still call me a great trainer."

"But you are, Niko." JJ said quietly. "You've inspired me."

"No, I haven't."

"But you have! Remember when I lost to Brock? I wanted to quit being a pokémon trainer. But I loved being around you and Fay so much, and loved seeing the world so much, that I wanted to suck it up and continue on. I didn't challenge gyms like you did, but I found my calling. I found a woman that I want to be with. I've seen and met people and pokémon that I never thought I would. And it's all because of you!" JJ said. "You're a constant inspiration to me and everyone around you. I've always believed you to be one of the strongest trainers I know. And with the pokémon that you have, you can be the greatest trainer in the world!"

"But I'm not, JJ. How can you not see that?" Niko said, clearly irritated. "I've been unable to improve my standing in a Pokémon League. I can't beat the one person in the world I would love to best in a battle. And I've had problems with the pokémon I've raised. I've lost a relationship. I've lost a father. How—why should I continue?"

"You should continue because that's the only way you'll get better!" JJ said. "When you lost at Indigo Plateau, you wanted to give up then, but you didn't. When you lost to Elliot, and Melinda, and even Hunter, you didn't give up! That's what I admire about you. That's what Brittany, and Fay, and Lauren, and Jake, and your parents admire about you!"

"Well, I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I'm done." Niko said.

"What…?" JJ asked.

"You heard me. I quit."

"But…you can't quit."

"I just did." Niko said plainly. It was clear that he didn't want to say any more on the subject.

"Have you told them yet?" JJ asked in reference to the pokémon.

"I will. I haven't decided when, though."

"Will you stay here?" JJ continued.

"I don't know, JJ. Please leave."

"There's nothing I can say to change your mind?"

"Absolutely nothing." Niko said. "End of conversation."

JJ stood up. "Well, fine. I can't seem to convince you. Later, Niko." He said, walking back into the house, leaving his friend completely alone.

Later, when Niko walked in, Jake walked up to him. They embraced briefly. "Hey, Dad's funeral is tomorrow afternoon. Just so you know." Niko simply nodded, and walked upstairs to his room.

That evening, Niko was staring at his ceiling, unable to sleep. Eventually he got up to look at his desk. On display sat his badge cases from Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, and Sinnoh. The only case missing was his Frontier Prints, which he had thrown in a box and put in his closet. He didn't want to look at them any longer. And he did the same with his other badge cases, putting them in the same box and throwing them in his closet. He didn't want to look at them anymore. He wanted to forget.

He then walked over to his window and opened the blind briefly, looking down at his nearly two dozen pokémon. All of them were sleeping peacefully. He wanted to give them one last look, especially if he chose to follow through with what he wanted to do.

* * *

Lauren stood in front of the Battle Tower and looked up at the massive building. It had only been a couple of days since she was last there, but it felt like forever. So much had happened between now and then. Niko had left, and her world felt thrown into turmoil.

But it wasn't just Niko. Brittany and JJ were gone, too. Her way of life had been altered radically and instantly. She tried to ignore it as she entered the tower. Walking up to the front desk, she requested a meeting with the Tower Tycoon.

"And who may you be?" The lady asked causally.

"I'm the new Frontier Brain." Lauren said, equally as casually. The lady nodded, and picked up a phone to dial a number, presumably Palmer's. Moments later, the elevator opened, and the tall blonde in a long, forest-green trench coat walked out happily, arms open wide.

"Welcome, Lauren!" Palmer said cheerfully. "How are you?"

"I'm…alright, I guess. I've come to a decision."

"And…?" Palmer said curiously.

"I accept your offer to become a Frontier Brain." Lauren said decisively.

* * *

The following morning, Niko got dressed up as if he was going to the funeral—in all black. His mother had Jake go out to get his older brother a suit, since Niko didn't actually own one. He put it on, but as he was finishing, he heard Jake enter.

"What's up?" Niko asked as he tightened his black tie.

"We're ready to leave." Jake said. He too was dressed in all black and looked rather dashing, if it weren't for the circumstances.

"Actually, you guys go on ahead, alright? I have something that I need to do first."

"Are you sure?" Jake asked curiously. "We can wait, I think. It's important that you're there."

"I will be, Jake. Don't worry. But let me go at my own pace, alright?" Niko demanded.

"Fine. See you there." Jake said, and left the room.

Niko waited until he heard the car drive away before he tore off the suit and got into more comfortable clothes. He pulled out his bag from underneath his bed that he had prepared the previous evening, slung it over his shoulder, and walked downstairs and into the backyard.

There, he saw his pokémon all turn to look at him. Niko choked up a little, and threw his bag onto the ground before approaching them.

"Hi, guys…" Niko said, looking at the four teams of pokémon that he had assembled over the past few years. "I…I want to say something to you before I leave."

The pokémon looked at him, confused and curious. Niko then took a deep breath, and began.

"I just want to say that the past four years have been an incredible experience. Meeting each and every one of you has been an individual high point of my life, and I wouldn't be the same without you all. We've been through so much—so many wins, and loses, and ties. We've grown in different ways, learned new things about ourselves and one another, and most importantly made lasting friendships. I can honestly say that I'm a better person because of you all.

"And that's why I owe you all the explanation for what I'm about to do. I'm giving up. I am no longer pursuing the goal of being a Pokémon Master, and I will no longer be training you all. I'm leaving Kanto for a long time, and I don't know when I'll be back. I don't know where I'm going, and I don't want any of you to follow me."

By now, his pokémon registered a variety of responses. Some of them were crying; some simply looked melancholic; and others more worried or concerned. Only venusaur seemed to express understanding, but even he had a tear in his eye. There's no way that Niko would abandon him—and the others—out of nowhere.

"It's difficult having to tell you this, but I think it's for the best. I'm not cut out to be a trainer anymore. Hunter was right—it's not for me. But if you feel that it's in your best interest to get stronger, than you can leave if you want. I'm not stopping you. No one is."

Niko then picked his bag back up and slung it over his shoulder. He looked at each of them in turn before staring right at venusaur, who stood in the middle. A tear briefly shone on Niko's cheek.

"Good bye, buddy." He then turned around and walked back through the house, not looking back at his pokémon, all of whom had tears in their eyes now, knowing that their trainer was abandoning them and might not come back for them. It was a hard pill for them to swallow, and not one that they were willing to take.

Off in the distance, a jet-black haired trainer watched from the other end of a low white picket fence. He tucked his hands into his jeans, lowered his red and white cap, and walked away, mindful of what he just saw.

Niko then walked inside, dropped a note on the kitchen table for his Mom and Jake to explain the situation as he just did with his pokémon. As he left his home, he finally took a look back, expressing a sad look the house he grew up in, and then proceeded towards the cemetery on the other end of the town.

Walking up to a tree roughly a hundred yards away, he watched the burial service from a distance, a crowd of people dressed in black gathered around a large casket. From his vantage point, he could spot Brittany, JJ, Fay, Jake, his mother, Professor Oak, and many others from his childhood. He sighed quietly, a tear in his eye as he took one last look at some of the only friends he has ever known, and turned and walked away.

Niko had no idea where he was going now, but it didn't matter to him. He felt like leaving was the best choice for him. It was the only choice. After an hour of walking, he made it to the water, watching as the sun set on the water, bathing the large expanse of ocean in a tangy orange glow. He took a deep breath, soaking in the fresh air, looking down and watching goldeen leaping in and out of the water.

It was the end of one journey, one arc, one chapter in his life, and the beginning of another. What lay ahead of him, he had no idea. The kinds of people he would meet, the kind of job he would take up in his new home was as of yet unknown to him. But he knew one thing for certain: he would never train pokémon again.

* * *

 **Author's note: This episode is—and will likely remain—one of the most pivotal episodes of the entire series. And, from my perspective, it was one of the harder ones to write. I've never written about human death before, and since Niko is—in a few ways—a character based on myself, it was even more difficult. However, this episode is one of the times where who I am and who Niko is are different. Niko, at this point in the story, becomes more of an anti-hero, which is not necessarily who I am in real life. How he develops after this you'll just have to wait and see, but this is definitely the lowest point he'll ever get to, and the darkest I'll ever write for this series. Also, it's worth noting that the way I've planned out his character development can be summarized into roughly three parts. This was the end of the second part. When we reunite with him in Season 6, he'll begin the third part.**

 **At the end of this pivotal season, I want to make a few points about the characters, since the entire group is essentially disbanding. I'll start with Lauren:**

 **Lauren had a couple important roles in the series. First and foremost, she was Niko's first love interest (even though he didn't technically "love" her), and provides romantic development for Niko, which is an essential part of his character development. Secondly, she acted as the primary rival for Season 4 (and kind of 5), both for Niko and for Brittany. And, honestly, she was a lot of fun to write, especially at the beginning of the series. As you all pointed out, her feelings for Niko were stupidly obvious. That was sort of intended.**

 **Next is JJ. I'll be honest—I'm going to miss writing him and Brittany a lot. JJ is, with maybe a single exception, completely based on someone I know in real life. Actually, most of these characters are. I had originally planned for JJ to stay on until Sinnoh, and I'm glad I followed through on that, but I have a few regrets about how I wrote him:**

 **For starters, I peaked his development too soon. I wanted him to discover his "dream" early on, but I inadvertently made him too confident too early. JJ in Season 1 was an often-nervous, somewhat dim-witted young man who was more of a follower than a leader. I wanted him to peak around late-Season 3, early Season 4, but I think I did it around the end of Season 2.**

 **The other regret is the pokémon choice for him. I should have given his chikorita to Niko, and just nixed shroomish altogether. I had plans for them, but never really cared enough to follow through with them.**

 **Lastly, I want to examine Brittany. Like with JJ, I'm really going to miss her. In real life, Brittany's character is one of my best friends, and I think I replicated that quite well here. Brittany is one of my favorite characters to write, and I think I did quite well in expressing that in this episode when she talks with Niko for the last time. I'm satisfied with her development, only that I think her development had the opposite problem compared to JJ's—I began her development later than I should have.**

 **I always planned for her to be the coordinator of the group (I think it's important to include this in a fanfic about Hoenn and Sinnoh, since it's important to the culture of those two regions in the Pokémon universe), and I'm really happy with how her development as a coordinator turned out. As for her choice of pokémon, I'm satisfied with it. Tangela was the only one I briefly regretted. I should have had her catch tangela later, since it served essentially no purpose until Hoenn and Sinnoh.**

 **With all of that said, I hoped you've enjoyed the series so far. As I've said before, this is a personal exercise in how I improve my writing. Part of that is character development, an aspect I've never been particularly good at, just like description of the world around my characters. I'd like to think I've gotten better at it, and it will continue to be the focus of the seasons to come.**

 **Now, I'd like to thank the reviewers, followers, and favoriters (which i've now declared is a word). I admittedly don't get a lot of them, so it's always nice (and a little nerve-wrecking) to get notifications of them in my inbox. All the same, they are appreciated, due to the nature of this personal exercise.**

 **So, without further ado, I'd like to thank Jolteon2404, Mega Espeon, Eeveefan1290, Hello 12, Light Flame Blast, Pokemaster3164, Amazing Spectacular Spider Man, Athios, RubyOmegaGroudon, and YellowFlashCannon.**

 **I've said too much now. I'll resume this series at the beginning of next month. Thanks for reading! :)**


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